CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (CNP) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.22 on March 13th

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 17th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of 0.22 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.63%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21.

CenterPoint Energy has raised its dividend by an average of 7.6% per year over the last three years. CenterPoint Energy has a dividend payout ratio of 47.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect CenterPoint Energy to earn $1.75 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 50.3%.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CNP opened at $33.45 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. CenterPoint Energy has a fifty-two week low of $25.41 and a fifty-two week high of $33.85. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $32.15 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.13. The company has a market cap of $21.80 billion, a PE ratio of 22.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.95.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CNP has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Guggenheim downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH started coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $34.50 target price for the company. Finally, Scotiabank raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.46.

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.