CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Given New $34.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) had its target price hoisted by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley from $32.00 to $34.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price points to a potential downside of 5.02% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Guggenheim cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday. UBS Group raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Scotiabank raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $33.77.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Down 0.2 %

NYSE CNP traded down $0.06 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $35.80. The company had a trading volume of 421,811 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,171,057. CenterPoint Energy has a fifty-two week low of $25.41 and a fifty-two week high of $35.94. The company has a market capitalization of $23.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $33.31 and its 200 day moving average is $31.33.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.40. The firm had revenue of $2.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.02% and a net margin of 11.79%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. J.Safra Asset Management Corp acquired a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in shares of CenterPoint Energy during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 657.1% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 782 shares in the last quarter. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, CoreCap Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 58.9% during the fourth quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 1,079 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.