CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.22

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 16th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.22 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, June 12th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.39%.

CenterPoint Energy has increased its dividend by an average of 7.6% per year over the last three years. CenterPoint Energy has a dividend payout ratio of 46.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect CenterPoint Energy to earn $1.87 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 47.1%.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $36.83 on Thursday. CenterPoint Energy has a fifty-two week low of $25.41 and a fifty-two week high of $37.70. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $35.03 and its 200 day moving average price is $32.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91. The stock has a market cap of $24.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.65.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

An institutional investor recently bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy stock. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 8,018 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $254,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on CNP. Guggenheim downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $36.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $34.46.

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.