CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Issues Earnings Results

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) released its quarterly earnings data on Monday. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.31, RTT News reports. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.81% and a net margin of 12.28%. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.40 EPS.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

NYSE:CNP opened at $29.43 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $28.66 and its 200 day moving average is $28.98. The firm has a market cap of $18.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.72, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.92. 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 has a 52-week low of $25.41 and a 52-week high of $31.57.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.15%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Scotiabank increased their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, August 26th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.09.

CenterPoint Energy Company Profile

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.