CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Rating Increased to Hold at StockNews.com

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) was upgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $32.00 to $28.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. KeyCorp cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday, August 26th. One 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.36.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

NYSE:CNP opened at $28.27 on Wednesday. CenterPoint Energy has a 52-week low of $25.41 and a 52-week high of $31.57. The company has a market cap of $18.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.20. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $27.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.67.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.81% and a net margin of 12.28%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.28 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Olistico Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter worth about $33,000. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 60.3% in the 1st quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 452 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tobam bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 1st quarter worth approximately $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

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.