CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Upgraded at Evercore ISI

Evercore ISI upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) from an in-line rating to an outperform rating in a research report released on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. Evercore ISI currently has $37.00 target price on the utilities provider’s stock, up from their previous target price of $36.00.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Barclays raised their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Guggenheim downgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. 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 assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $32.77.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of CNP stock opened at $34.58 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $32.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.04. The company has a market cap of $22.57 billion, a PE ratio of 21.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. CenterPoint Energy has a fifty-two week low of $25.41 and a fifty-two week high of $35.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.08.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. Equities analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.55%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 20th. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 55.35%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CNP. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Assetmark Inc. raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 657.1% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 782 shares in the last quarter. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 51.3% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 375 shares in 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.