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

Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) have received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $30.18.

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and increased their target price for the company from $29.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Barclays raised their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Mizuho restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $29.00 price objective (down previously from $30.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Wednesday, February 21st.

Institutional Trading of CenterPoint Energy

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 302.6% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 159,772 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,565,000 after acquiring an additional 120,085 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 27.0% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,209,630 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,559,000 after acquiring an additional 256,820 shares during the last quarter. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter worth $399,000. UBS Group AG increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 37.5% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,540,465 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $41,361,000 after acquiring an additional 420,010 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 32.5% in the 4th quarter. Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA now owns 416,957 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,912,000 after acquiring an additional 102,271 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $28.86 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy has a 1 year low of $25.42 and a 1 year high of $31.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $28.04 and its 200-day moving average price is $28.01.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.44% and a net margin of 10.55%. The firm had revenue of $2.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.77%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 58.82%.

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.