CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $33.77.

CNP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Guggenheim lowered CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Scotiabank raised CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 0.5 %

CNP stock opened at $35.77 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91. CenterPoint Energy has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $36.19. The company has a 50 day moving average of $33.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $31.45. The company has a market cap of $23.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.49, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.40. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of CenterPoint Energy

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 156.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 45,573,115 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,446,036,000 after acquiring an additional 27,799,744 shares during the last quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter worth $164,350,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 4th quarter valued at about $158,232,000. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1,431.1% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,408,551 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $108,153,000 after acquiring an additional 3,185,932 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at $97,348,000. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.