CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Raised to “Hold” at StockNews.com

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on the company. KeyCorp lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Scotiabank cut their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. BMO Capital Markets downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $28.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $30.00 to $29.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. One 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 data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.73.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CNP stock opened at $25.79 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy has a 12 month low of $25.41 and a 12 month high of $31.57. The firm has a market cap of $16.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $29.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.74.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly 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 net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. The company had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.28 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 15,773 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $449,000 after purchasing an additional 357 shares in the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 18,981 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $541,000 after purchasing an additional 388 shares during the last quarter. Pitcairn Co. raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.3% during the first quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 19,544 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $557,000 after acquiring an additional 434 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 13,224 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $377,000 after purchasing an additional 447 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 60.3% in the first quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 452 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is owned by 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.