Morgan Stanley Cuts CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Price Target to $31.00

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) had its target price cut by Morgan Stanley from $32.00 to $31.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday, August 26th. StockNews.com lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price objective for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.00.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Up 1.8 %

NYSE:CNP opened at $32.49 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. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.17 billion, a PE ratio of 21.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $29.79 and its 200 day moving average is $29.18. CenterPoint Energy has a 12 month low of $25.41 and a 12 month high of $32.61.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. The business had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.40 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.59%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 55.63%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Boston Partners grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.3% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 17,545,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $499,962,000 after buying an additional 556,802 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,083,896 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $442,231,000 after buying an additional 370,790 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 38.8% during the first 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 buying an additional 2,961,464 shares during the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 5.2% during the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 5,009,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $147,387,000 after buying an additional 247,944 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 46.6% during the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 4,666,563 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $144,570,000 after buying an additional 1,484,079 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.