CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Downgraded to Sell Rating by Wall Street Zen

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

CNP has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley restated an “underperform” rating and set a $37.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Mizuho set a $42.00 target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. KeyCorp upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $41.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, December 12th. UBS Group lowered their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $45.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $41.82.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 2.0%

CNP stock opened at $42.48 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $38.95 and its 200 day moving average is $38.85. The stock has a market cap of $27.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 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 has a 1-year low of $33.24 and a 1-year high of $42.57.

Institutional Trading of CenterPoint Energy

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CNP. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,129,628 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,381,069,000 after buying an additional 833,374 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 82,381,128 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,158,492,000 after buying an additional 719,803 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 20,941,909 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $802,916,000 after acquiring an additional 235,346 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 17,023,720 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $650,189,000 after purchasing an additional 166,305 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the 4th quarter worth approximately $343,925,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Company Profile

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.