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

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $33.77.

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Barclays boosted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. UBS Group raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th.

Institutional Trading of CenterPoint Energy

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital International Investors grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,449,927 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,774,941,000 after buying an additional 334,631 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 46,645,434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,480,060,000 after buying an additional 1,922,169 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in CenterPoint Energy by 156.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 45,573,115 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,446,036,000 after purchasing an additional 27,799,744 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,490,728 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $490,205,000 after buying an additional 406,832 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,880,015 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $186,573,000 after buying an additional 431,260 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $35.71 on Tuesday. 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 has a fifty-two week low of $25.41 and a fifty-two week high of $36.19. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $33.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.40. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. On average, analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

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.