CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Announces Earnings Results, Hits Estimates

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.31, RTT News reports. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.40 EPS. CenterPoint Energy updated its FY24 guidance to $1.61-1.63 EPS and its FY25 guidance to $1.74-1.76 EPS.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

NYSE CNP opened at $29.31 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $28.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.95. CenterPoint Energy has a 52-week low of $25.41 and a 52-week high of $31.57.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. 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 yield of 2.87%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.69%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on CNP. KeyCorp downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price target for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.91.

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.