CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Cut to Neutral at Guggenheim

Guggenheim cut shares of CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research report released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on CNP. UBS Group raised CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Scotiabank upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. StockNews.com cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH began coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price target on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.38.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $32.37 on Thursday. CenterPoint Energy has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $33.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $31.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $29.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.44, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.95.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. The company had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.40 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 58.28%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,083,896 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $442,231,000 after acquiring an additional 370,790 shares during the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 5,009,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $147,387,000 after purchasing an additional 247,944 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,956,432 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $116,398,000 after buying an additional 110,905 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,177,364 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $93,478,000 after buying an additional 65,139 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 8.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,611,909 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $80,914,000 after buying an additional 200,693 shares during the last quarter. 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.