CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Raised to Hold at StockNews.com

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) was upgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday.

CNP has been the topic of several other research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. KeyCorp cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.36.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CNP traded down $0.11 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $28.21. 4,563,152 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,272,875. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $31.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The company’s 50 day moving average is $27.56 and its 200 day moving average is $28.68.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.81% and a net margin of 12.28%. The firm had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.28 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.0% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 83,754,579 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,386,168,000 after acquiring an additional 865,120 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 17,545,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $499,962,000 after buying an additional 556,802 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 38.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 2,961,464 shares during the period. Cohen & Steers Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,952,992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $170,077,000 after buying an additional 46,232 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Company Profile

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.