CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Hits New 12-Month High – Should You Buy?

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP)’s share price hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $31.62 and last traded at $31.46, with a volume of 70939 shares. The stock had previously closed at $31.40.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CNP has been the topic of a number of research reports. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, August 26th. KeyCorp downgraded 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 stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, StockNews.com cut CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.09.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 1.2 %

The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $29.63 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $29.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.31. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.73% and a net margin of 11.25%. The business had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.40 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy, Inc. will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.21 dividend. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.65%. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is presently 52.98%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CNP. Boston Partners grew its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 17,545,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $499,962,000 after buying an additional 556,802 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 2.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,083,896 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $442,231,000 after purchasing an additional 370,790 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 38.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,602,621 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $302,070,000 after acquiring an additional 2,961,464 shares during the period. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. lifted its stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 5,009,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $147,387,000 after purchasing an additional 247,944 shares during the period. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 46.6% in the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 4,666,563 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $144,570,000 after purchasing an additional 1,484,079 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

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.