CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Price Target Raised to $34.00

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) had its price objective raised by Morgan Stanley from $32.00 to $34.00 in a report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on CNP. UBS Group upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $36.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH assumed coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price objective on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $33.77.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

Shares of CNP opened at $35.93 on Thursday. CenterPoint Energy has a twelve month low of $25.41 and a twelve month high of $35.99. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $33.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.60, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. The business had revenue of $2.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. Equities analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 87,449,927 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,774,941,000 after acquiring an additional 334,631 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 46,645,434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,480,060,000 after acquiring an additional 1,922,169 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 156.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 45,573,115 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,446,036,000 after buying an additional 27,799,744 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,490,728 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $490,205,000 after buying an additional 406,832 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in CenterPoint Energy by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,880,015 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $186,573,000 after buying an additional 431,260 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.