CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Price Target Cut to $28.00

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) had its price objective dropped by analysts at Scotiabank from $29.00 to $28.00 in a research report issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “sector perform” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Scotiabank’s price objective points to a potential upside of 7.10% from the stock’s current price.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the company from $30.00 to $29.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. BMO Capital Markets lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their target price for the company from $31.00 to $28.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $32.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. KeyCorp downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.64.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CNP stock opened at $26.15 on Tuesday. CenterPoint Energy has a fifty-two week low of $25.41 and a fifty-two week high of $31.57. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $28.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $28.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The firm has a market cap of $16.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.41, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.92.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at about $94,750,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 38.8% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,602,621 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $302,070,000 after acquiring an additional 2,961,464 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of 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 worth $141,666,000 after purchasing an additional 2,428,640 shares in the last quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter valued at approximately $63,758,000. Finally, Reaves W H & Co. Inc. raised its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 391.0% in the fourth quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 2,314,797 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $66,134,000 after purchasing an additional 1,843,333 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.