CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report released on Thursday morning.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on CNP. KeyCorp downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.91.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $30.11 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $28.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.89. CenterPoint Energy has a 52 week low of $25.41 and a 52 week high of $31.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.20, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.91 billion during 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 quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.28 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.15%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CNP. Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.0% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,754,579 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,386,168,000 after purchasing an additional 865,120 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 17,545,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $499,962,000 after buying an additional 556,802 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 38.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,602,621 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $302,070,000 after buying an additional 2,961,464 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 46.6% in the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 4,666,563 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $144,570,000 after buying an additional 1,484,079 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 4,043,757 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $125,275,000 after buying an additional 53,655 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.