Wells Fargo & Company Lowers CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) to Equal Weight

Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have $28.00 price target on the utilities provider’s stock, down from their previous price target of $32.00.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and cut their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $31.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a sector perform rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $29.73.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

NYSE:CNP opened at $25.79 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $29.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The firm has a market cap of $16.50 billion, a PE ratio of 18.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy has a 1-year low of $25.41 and a 1-year high of $31.57.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.28 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.10%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.34%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the first quarter valued at $25,000. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at $33,000. Olistico Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at $33,000. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 60.3% in the first 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 during the period. Finally, Tobam bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 1st quarter valued at $35,000. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.