CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Earns Neutral Rating from Analysts at Bank of America

Research analysts at Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, StockNewsAPI reports. The firm set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price target on the utilities provider’s stock. Bank of America‘s price target points to a potential upside of 3.76% from the company’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on CNP. KeyCorp cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. StockNews.com cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $32.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.36.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $27.95 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $17.94 billion, a PE ratio of 19.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 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. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $27.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $28.65. CenterPoint Energy has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $31.57.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. The business had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.28 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 4th quarter valued at about $94,750,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 38.8% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,602,621 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $302,070,000 after buying an additional 2,961,464 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 96.0% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,958,562 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $141,666,000 after buying an additional 2,428,640 shares during the last quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $63,758,000. Finally, Cohen & Steers Inc. raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% during the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 8,030,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $229,436,000 after buying an additional 1,578,948 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

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.