CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Receives $34.46 Consensus PT from Brokerages

Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) have been given an average rating of “Hold” by the fourteen research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $34.46.

CNP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Guggenheim cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Evercore ISI raised CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $36.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock 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 report on Monday, March 17th.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CNP stock opened at $37.21 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $34.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.46. CenterPoint Energy has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $37.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.65.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CNP. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 80,577 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,557,000 after acquiring an additional 2,283 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,484,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,104,000 after buying an additional 42,578 shares during the last quarter. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $265,000. Atria Investments Inc raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 57.1% in the 4th quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 34,577 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,097,000 after acquiring an additional 12,563 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 847,366 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $24,930,000 after purchasing an additional 56,037 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

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.