CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Hold" from Analysts

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) has received a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the fourteen analysts that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have assigned a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $34.46.

A number of research firms have commented on CNP. Argus raised shares of CenterPoint Energy to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Barclays lifted their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Guggenheim lowered CenterPoint Energy from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 80,577 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $2,557,000 after buying an additional 2,283 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,484,528 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $47,104,000 after purchasing an additional 42,578 shares during the last quarter. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter worth approximately $265,000. Atria Investments Inc lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 57.1% in the fourth quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 34,577 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 12,563 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 7.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 847,366 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $24,930,000 after purchasing an additional 56,037 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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CenterPoint Energy Trading Down 0.3 %

CNP stock traded down $0.10 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $37.13. The stock had a trading volume of 6,008,107 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,552,240. CenterPoint Energy has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $37.70. The firm has a market cap of $24.24 billion, a PE ratio of 23.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.65. The company's 50-day moving average price is $34.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $32.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. On average, equities research analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.