KeyCorp Increases CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Price Target to $34.00

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP – Get Rating) had its price target lifted by analysts at KeyCorp from $33.00 to $34.00 in a report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. KeyCorp’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 5.69% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on CNP. UBS Group raised CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $27.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 15th. Mizuho raised their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 13th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $27.00 to $31.00 in a research report on Monday, January 10th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, March 31st. They issued a “sell” rating for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $30.62.

NYSE:CNP opened at $32.17 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $20.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.15 and a beta of 0.94. CenterPoint Energy has a twelve month low of $23.58 and a twelve month high of $32.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.72, a quick ratio of 1.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $27.83.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 22nd. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $2.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.72 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 17.79% and a return on equity of 14.46%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.29 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 62,536,247 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,745,384,000 after purchasing an additional 6,679,825 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,244,183 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $844,115,000 after buying an additional 1,421,055 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 30.4% during the third quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 26,966,939 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $663,387,000 after buying an additional 6,279,070 shares during the period. Boston Partners grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.4% during the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 23,801,781 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $585,712,000 after buying an additional 333,359 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 32.6% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 20,235,985 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $564,785,000 after acquiring an additional 4,973,550 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.52% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Company Profile (Get Rating)

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

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