Morgan Stanley Raises CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Price Target to $32.00

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) had its price objective raised by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from $30.00 to $32.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 11.81% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on CNP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Scotiabank cut their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. StockNews.com raised CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, KeyCorp cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.55.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:CNP traded down $0.06 on Wednesday, reaching $28.62. 1,272,501 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,304,955. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $27.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.69. CenterPoint Energy has a 52 week low of $25.41 and a 52 week high of $31.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.28 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.1% during the first quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 18,981 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $541,000 after purchasing an additional 388 shares during the last quarter. Pitcairn Co. raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 19,544 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $557,000 after acquiring an additional 434 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 13,224 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $377,000 after acquiring an additional 447 shares during the last quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 60.3% in the 1st quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 452 shares during the last quarter. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC raised its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 19,650 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $609,000 after acquiring an additional 462 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.