CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Raised to Hold at Wall Street Zen

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on CNP. KeyCorp upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $41.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $36.00 price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $41.45.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CenterPoint Energy stock opened at $39.75 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $38.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.37. CenterPoint Energy has a 12 month low of $31.76 and a 12 month high of $40.50. The company has a market cap of $25.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.16, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a current ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.04. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.25% and a net margin of 11.37%.The firm had revenue of $1.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.31 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Phillip R. Smith sold 6,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.83, for a total transaction of $240,746.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 65,577 shares in the company, valued at $2,546,354.91. The trade was a 8.64% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Root Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. purchased a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter worth about $26,000. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. bought a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. LRI Investments LLC raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 107.9% in the third quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 684 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 355 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Chung Wu Investment Group LLC purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

About CenterPoint Energy

CenterPoint Energy, Inc (NYSE: CNP) is a Houston-based regulated utility company that provides electric and natural gas delivery services and related infrastructure operations. The company’s principal activities center on the transmission and distribution of electricity in the greater Houston metropolitan area and the distribution of natural gas to customers across several states in the Midwest and South. As a vertically integrated utility, CenterPoint focuses on the reliable delivery of energy through owned and operated networks of lines, pipelines and associated facilities.

CenterPoint’s core businesses include regulated electric transmission and distribution services, regulated natural gas distribution, and the operation and maintenance of energy infrastructure.