CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Price Target Cut to $29.00

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) had its price target dropped by stock analysts at Scotiabank from $31.00 to $29.00 in a research note issued on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “sector perform” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Scotiabank’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 0.94% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Guggenheim cut their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Evercore ISI cut CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and upped their price target for the company from $29.00 to $30.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Mizuho restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $29.00 price objective (down from $30.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.18.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $28.73 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $27.96 and a 200-day moving average of $27.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The company has a market capitalization of $18.19 billion, a PE ratio of 21.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy has a 1-year low of $25.42 and a 1-year high of $31.43.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32. The business had revenue of $2.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.83 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.44% and a net margin of 10.55%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.28 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CNP. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 302.6% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 159,772 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,565,000 after purchasing an additional 120,085 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 27.0% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,209,630 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,559,000 after buying an additional 256,820 shares in the last quarter. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter worth $399,000. UBS Group AG increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 37.5% in the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,540,465 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $41,361,000 after purchasing an additional 420,010 shares during the period. Finally, Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA increased its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 32.5% in the fourth quarter. Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA now owns 416,957 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,912,000 after purchasing an additional 102,271 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.