CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Price Target Cut to $31.00 by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) had its price objective dropped by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $32.00 to $31.00 in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “equal weight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective would indicate a potential downside of 3.91% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. KeyCorp downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com cut CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price objective for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.00.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CNP traded up $0.53 during trading on Friday, reaching $32.26. The stock had a trading volume of 1,734,138 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,346,377. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.11. The business has a 50-day moving average of $29.63 and a 200-day moving average of $29.15. CenterPoint Energy has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $32.34. The stock has a market cap of $21.02 billion, a PE ratio of 21.41, a PEG ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.31. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.73% and a net margin of 11.25%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.40 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CNP. Olistico Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter worth about $33,000. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 51.3% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 375 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Kimelman & Baird LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter worth $43,000. 91.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.