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

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) had its target price upped by Morgan Stanley from $32.00 to $34.00 in a research report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH started coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price objective on the stock. Guggenheim downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays raised their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Scotiabank raised CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group raised CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Two investment 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $33.77.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $35.77 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $33.49 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.45. CenterPoint Energy has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $36.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The firm has a market cap of $23.34 billion, a PE ratio of 22.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of CenterPoint Energy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,449,927 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,774,941,000 after buying an additional 334,631 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 46,645,434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,480,060,000 after buying an additional 1,922,169 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 27,799,744 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,490,728 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $490,205,000 after buying an additional 406,832 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 7.9% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,880,015 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $186,573,000 after buying an additional 431,260 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.