Morgan Stanley Increases CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Price Target to $30.00

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) had its target price boosted by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $29.00 to $30.00 in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price suggests a potential upside of 12.07% from the company’s current price.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $32.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. BMO Capital Markets downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $31.00 to $28.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com raised CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 17th. KeyCorp downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.73.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CNP stock opened at $26.77 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.20. The firm has a market cap of $17.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $28.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $28.68. CenterPoint Energy has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $31.57.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the first quarter worth $25,000. Olistico Wealth LLC acquired a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 2nd quarter worth about $33,000. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 60.3% during the 1st quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 452 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tobam acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 1st quarter worth approximately $35,000. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.