Morgan Stanley Increases CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Price Target to $32.00

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) had its price objective lifted by Morgan Stanley from $30.00 to $32.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

CNP has been the subject of a number of other research reports. KeyCorp downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an overweight rating to a sector weight rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Bank of America initiated coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a neutral rating and a $29.00 target price on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a market perform rating and set a $28.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, August 26th. Wells Fargo & Company cut CenterPoint Energy from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a sector perform rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $29.55.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $29.10 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.20. CenterPoint Energy has a 52-week low of $25.41 and a 52-week high of $31.57. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $27.49 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $28.70. The firm has a market cap of $18.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.49, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.81% and a net margin of 12.28%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.28 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a $0.21 dividend. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.89%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is 56.34%.

Institutional Trading of CenterPoint Energy

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 38.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,602,621 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $302,070,000 after acquiring an additional 2,961,464 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 96.0% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,958,562 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $141,666,000 after purchasing an additional 2,428,640 shares during the period. Railway Pension Investments Ltd bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter valued at $63,758,000. Cohen & Steers Inc. increased its position in CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% in the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 8,030,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $229,436,000 after buying an additional 1,578,948 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 46.6% in the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 4,666,563 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $144,570,000 after buying an additional 1,484,079 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.