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

Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) have received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the thirteen ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $31.27.

CNP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Scotiabank raised CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. StockNews.com lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH assumed coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 target price on the stock. UBS Group upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

CNP stock opened at $31.04 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $31.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $29.55. CenterPoint Energy has a 12 month low of $25.41 and a 12 month high of $33.00. The company has a market capitalization of $20.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.31. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.40 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is 58.28%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 33.9% during the second quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 130,702 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,049,000 after purchasing an additional 33,064 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 8.5% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 168,849 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,231,000 after purchasing an additional 13,180 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 30.2% in the 2nd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 392,633 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,164,000 after buying an additional 90,981 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 1,294,169 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $40,093,000 after buying an additional 44,041 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.