CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Sets New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $36.97 and last traded at $36.51, with a volume of 300482 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $36.25.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CNP has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Scotiabank raised CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $36.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $33.77.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 1.6 %

The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $33.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $31.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. 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 (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. The company had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.46 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CNP. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 657.1% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 782 shares in the last quarter. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Finally, CoreCap Advisors LLC increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 58.9% in the 4th quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 1,079 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by 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.