CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Price Target Raised to $34.00 at Morgan Stanley

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) had its target price increased by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $32.00 to $34.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an "equal weight" rating on the utilities provider's stock. Morgan Stanley's price objective indicates a potential downside of 4.78% from the stock's previous close.

Several other research firms also recently commented on CNP. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Evercore ISI raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $36.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Guggenheim cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Barclays increased 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. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $33.77.

Remove Ads

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 0.2 %

CenterPoint Energy stock traded down $0.07 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $35.71. The stock had a trading volume of 4,210,644 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,201,529. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $33.58 and its 200-day moving average price is $31.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. CenterPoint Energy has a 12-month low of $25.41 and a 12-month high of $36.19. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. Equities research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 156.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 45,573,115 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,446,036,000 after acquiring an additional 27,799,744 shares in the last quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter worth approximately $164,350,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter worth $158,232,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1,431.1% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,408,551 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $108,153,000 after purchasing an additional 3,185,932 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 4th quarter valued at $97,348,000. Institutional investors 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.