CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Given New $31.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) had its target price dropped by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $32.00 to $31.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective indicates a potential downside of 2.91% from the company’s current price.

CNP has been the subject of several other reports. KeyCorp lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com cut CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 target price for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.00.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $31.93 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. CenterPoint Energy has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $32.34. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $29.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $29.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.81 billion, a PE ratio of 21.15, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.31. The business had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.40 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CNP. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 185.7% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 235,223 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,287,000 after purchasing an additional 152,878 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 86.4% during the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,413,899 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $40,282,000 after buying an additional 655,327 shares during the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 18.7% during the second quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 78,838 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,442,000 after buying an additional 12,422 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 13.4% in the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,052,237 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $32,630,000 after acquiring an additional 124,529 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,898,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $55,863,000 after acquiring an additional 24,400 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.