CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Issues Earnings Results, Hits Expectations

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) released its quarterly earnings results on Monday. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31, RTT News reports. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.40 EPS.

CenterPoint Energy Trading Down 0.6 %

CNP traded down $0.17 on Wednesday, hitting $29.26. The company had a trading volume of 3,895,129 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,370,666. The firm has a market cap of $18.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.61, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $31.57. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $28.72 and its 200 day moving average price is $28.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.87%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This is a positive change from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is currently 59.15%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $32.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. KeyCorp lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $29.00 price objective on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.09.

About CenterPoint Energy

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.