CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Raises Dividend to $0.22 Per Share

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 17th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of 0.22 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21.

CenterPoint Energy has increased its dividend by an average of 1.3% annually over the last three years. CenterPoint Energy has a payout ratio of 48.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect CenterPoint Energy to earn $1.74 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 48.3%.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Down 0.9 %

NYSE:CNP opened at $31.44 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. CenterPoint Energy has a 1-year low of $25.41 and a 1-year high of $33.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.82, a PEG ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.96. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $30.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $29.45.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on CNP shares. Scotiabank upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective 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. Bank of America started coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 target price for the company. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH assumed coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price objective for the company. Finally, UBS Group raised CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.27.

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.