Analysts Set CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Target Price at $33.50

Shares of CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) have been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the twelve brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have given a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $33.77.

CNP has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Scotiabank upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI raised CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $36.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 156.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 45,573,115 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,446,036,000 after acquiring an additional 27,799,744 shares during the period. BROOKFIELD Corp ON bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter worth $164,350,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter valued at $158,232,000. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 1,431.1% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,408,551 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $108,153,000 after acquiring an additional 3,185,932 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter valued at $97,348,000. 91.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

NYSE CNP opened at $35.71 on Tuesday. CenterPoint Energy has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $36.19. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $33.58 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.53. The firm has a market cap of $23.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.46, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.92.

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

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.