CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Given Consensus Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) have been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the ten brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have given a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $29.40.

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on CNP shares. KeyCorp cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 25th. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 20th.

Institutional Trading of CenterPoint Energy

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,754,579 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,386,168,000 after buying an additional 865,120 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its position in CenterPoint Energy by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 17,545,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $499,962,000 after purchasing an additional 556,802 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 38.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,602,621 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $302,070,000 after purchasing an additional 2,961,464 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% in the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 8,030,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $229,436,000 after purchasing an additional 1,578,948 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,952,992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $170,077,000 after purchasing an additional 46,232 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $27.76 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.55, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.92. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $27.98 and its 200 day moving average is $28.66. CenterPoint Energy has a 52 week low of $25.41 and a 52 week high of $31.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.20.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. The firm had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.28 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.88%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.34%.

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.