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

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) was upgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other analysts have also commented on CNP. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $32.00 to $28.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price target for the company. Scotiabank cut their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $28.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, KeyCorp cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.55.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CNP opened at $29.10 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $27.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.70. The firm has a market cap of $18.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.49, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $31.57.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.28 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position 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 period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 96.0% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,958,562 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $141,666,000 after buying an additional 2,428,640 shares in the last quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $63,758,000. Cohen & Steers Inc. increased its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 24.5% during the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 8,030,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $229,436,000 after purchasing an additional 1,578,948 shares during the period. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC raised its position in CenterPoint Energy by 46.6% during the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 4,666,563 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $144,570,000 after purchasing an additional 1,484,079 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.