CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the ten research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $30.90.

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CNP. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 20th. Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Wednesday.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $28.64 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $18.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy has a 12-month low of $25.42 and a 12-month high of $31.57. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $30.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.02. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.57% and a net margin of 11.03%. The company had revenue of $2.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.82 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.50 earnings per share. Analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.79%. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is currently 56.34%.

Insider Activity at CenterPoint Energy

In other CenterPoint Energy news, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.42, for a total value of $166,811.40. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 21,203 shares in the company, valued at $623,792.26. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the 4th quarter worth approximately $94,750,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 38.8% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,602,621 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $302,070,000 after acquiring an additional 2,961,464 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 96.0% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,958,562 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $141,666,000 after acquiring an additional 2,428,640 shares in the last quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 391.0% during the 4th quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 2,314,797 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $66,134,000 after acquiring an additional 1,843,333 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cohen & Steers Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% during the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 8,030,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $229,436,000 after purchasing an additional 1,578,948 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Company Profile

CenterPoint Energy, Inc operates as a public utility holding company in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Electric and Natural Gas. The Electric segment includes electric transmission and distribution services to electric customers and electric generation assets, as well as optimizes assets in the wholesale power market.