Morgan Stanley Cuts CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Price Target to $31.00

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) had its price target lowered by Morgan Stanley from $32.00 to $31.00 in a research report report published on Friday,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

CNP has been the topic of a number of other research reports. StockNews.com downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. KeyCorp downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.00.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $32.49 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $21.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. CenterPoint Energy has a 1-year low of $25.41 and a 1-year high of $32.61. The business’s 50 day moving average is $29.79 and its 200-day moving average is $29.18.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. The business had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.73% and a net margin of 11.25%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.40 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.59%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.63%.

Institutional Trading of CenterPoint Energy

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 51.3% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 375 shares during the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 25.7% during the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 418 shares during the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 19,650 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $609,000 after purchasing an additional 462 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 60,511 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,780,000 after purchasing an additional 472 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 20,538 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $604,000 after purchasing an additional 484 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.