CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Announces Earnings Results

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) released its earnings results on Monday. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31, RTT News reports. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.40 EPS.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $29.43 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $18.82 billion, a PE ratio of 20.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $28.66 and its 200-day moving average is $28.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.20. CenterPoint Energy has a 52 week low of $25.41 and a 52 week high of $31.57.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.85%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is 59.15%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. KeyCorp cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.09.

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.