CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results, Hits Estimates

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

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of CNP stock traded up $0.47 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $29.73. 704,227 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,347,963. CenterPoint Energy has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $31.57. The company has a current ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79. The stock has a market cap of $19.02 billion, a PE ratio of 20.61, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.92. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $28.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.98.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.83%. CenterPoint Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.15%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on CNP. KeyCorp cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.09.

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.