Scotiabank Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Stock

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) had its target price upped by Scotiabank from $40.00 to $42.00 in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “sector outperform” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Scotiabank’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 9.46% from the stock’s previous close.

CNP has been the topic of several other research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Barclays raised CenterPoint Energy from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $42.00 price objective on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $37.21.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CNP stock opened at $38.37 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $36.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $35.60. The firm has a market cap of $25.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.83, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.57. CenterPoint Energy has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $39.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.44 by ($0.15). The firm had revenue of $1.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.20 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.16% and a net margin of 10.42%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.36 EPS. Analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of CenterPoint Energy

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Curat Global LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 1st quarter worth $25,000. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 1st quarter worth $25,000. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 1st quarter worth $27,000. Finally, Chung Wu Investment Group LLC acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at $29,000. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.