Wall Street Zen Upgrades CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) to Hold

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Monday.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $37.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. KeyCorp upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $41.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, December 12th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $45.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $42.00.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $42.79 on Monday. CenterPoint Energy has a 12-month low of $33.24 and a 12-month high of $43.20. The company has a market cap of $27.94 billion, a PE ratio of 26.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.59. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $39.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The utilities provider reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.46 by ($0.01). CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.24% and a return on equity of 10.46%. The business had revenue of $2.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.23 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.40 EPS. CenterPoint Energy has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.900- EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CNP. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter worth about $254,000. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 15.6% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 76,100 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,757,000 after purchasing an additional 10,277 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 5.8% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 69,683 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,525,000 after purchasing an additional 3,821 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 11.5% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 13,411 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $486,000 after purchasing an additional 1,384 shares during the period. Finally, Woodline Partners LP grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 40.7% during the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 55,061 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,995,000 after purchasing an additional 15,922 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

About CenterPoint Energy

CenterPoint Energy, Inc (NYSE: CNP) is a Houston-based regulated utility company that provides electric and natural gas delivery services and related infrastructure operations. The company’s principal activities center on the transmission and distribution of electricity in the greater Houston metropolitan area and the distribution of natural gas to customers across several states in the Midwest and South. As a vertically integrated utility, CenterPoint focuses on the reliable delivery of energy through owned and operated networks of lines, pipelines and associated facilities.

CenterPoint’s core businesses include regulated electric transmission and distribution services, regulated natural gas distribution, and the operation and maintenance of energy infrastructure.