StockNews.com Lowers CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) to Sell

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) was downgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report issued on Sunday.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the company. BMO Capital Markets lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $31.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $32.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.73.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $26.77 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $31.57. The firm has a market cap of $17.13 billion, a PE ratio of 18.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.20. The business has a fifty day moving average of $28.62 and a 200-day moving average of $28.68.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.04. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.81% and a net margin of 12.28%. The company had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.28 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Olistico Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 60.3% during the 1st quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 452 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tobam bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 1st quarter valued at about $35,000. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

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.