CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Reaches New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) shares hit a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $36.97 and last traded at $36.51, with a volume of 300482 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $36.25.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CNP has been the topic of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $36.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Scotiabank upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH started coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price target for the company. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $33.77.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 1.0 %

The company has a 50 day moving average of $33.85 and a 200-day moving average of $31.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.08. The stock has a market cap of $23.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.40. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. On average, research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CNP. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 156.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 45,573,115 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,446,036,000 after purchasing an additional 27,799,744 shares during the period. BROOKFIELD Corp ON acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter worth $164,350,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at $158,232,000. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1,431.1% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,408,551 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $108,153,000 after acquiring an additional 3,185,932 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the 4th quarter worth about $97,348,000. 91.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About CenterPoint Energy

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.