CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the fourteen research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have issued a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $34.46.

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Evercore ISI raised CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $36.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Guggenheim cut CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $42.00 target price for the company.

Institutional Trading of CenterPoint Energy

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Curat Global LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the first quarter worth $25,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter valued at about $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 657.1% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 782 shares during the period. Finally, VSM Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

NYSE:CNP opened at $36.56 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $34.75 and its 200-day moving average is $32.38. CenterPoint Energy has a 1-year low of $25.41 and a 1-year high of $37.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91. The stock has a market cap of $23.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.65.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. The firm 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%. Equities research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

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.