CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.20

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, August 5th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.20 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, September 12th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th.

CenterPoint Energy has increased its dividend by an average of 1.3% per year over the last three years. CenterPoint Energy has a payout ratio of 46.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect CenterPoint Energy to earn $1.74 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 46.0%.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

NYSE:CNP traded down $0.14 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $25.63. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 10,955,749 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,030,282. CenterPoint Energy has a twelve month low of $25.42 and a twelve month high of $31.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.75 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.84. The company has a market capitalization of $16.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.15, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.92.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CNP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $29.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. BMO Capital Markets cut CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $28.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Scotiabank cut their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, KeyCorp lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.90.

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.