CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Price Target Raised to $33.00

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) had its price objective lifted by BMO Capital Markets from $32.00 to $33.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Monday, May 20th. Scotiabank cut their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a sector perform rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. StockNews.com lowered CenterPoint Energy from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $31.00.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

NYSE:CNP opened at $30.98 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $30.03 and its 200-day moving average is $28.79. The company has a market cap of $19.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.82, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.25. CenterPoint Energy has a 52-week low of $25.42 and a 52-week high of $31.57.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.02. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.57% and a net margin of 11.03%. The firm had revenue of $2.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.82 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.50 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.58%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.34%.

Insider Activity at CenterPoint Energy

In other CenterPoint Energy news, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.42, for a total value of $166,811.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 21,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $623,792.26. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in CenterPoint Energy by 302.6% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 159,772 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,565,000 after purchasing an additional 120,085 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia grew its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 305,736 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,735,000 after buying an additional 60,223 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 36.2% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 433,039 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,372,000 after buying an additional 115,029 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 27.0% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,209,630 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $34,559,000 after acquiring an additional 256,820 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 27.7% during the 4th quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 209,034 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,972,000 after acquiring an additional 45,389 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.