CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Now Covered by Analysts at Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $42.00 target price on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on the company. Scotiabank upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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. UBS Group raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Evercore ISI raised shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $36.00 to $37.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, LADENBURG THALM/SH SH initiated coverage on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price target on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.46.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE CNP opened at $36.96 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $34.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $31.92. CenterPoint Energy has a one year low of $25.41 and a one year high of $37.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.12 billion, a PE ratio of 23.25, 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.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting 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 net margin of 11.79% and a return on equity of 10.02%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 80,577 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,557,000 after buying an additional 2,283 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its holdings in CenterPoint Energy by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,484,528 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,104,000 after acquiring an additional 42,578 shares during the period. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy during the 4th quarter worth approximately $265,000. Atria Investments Inc increased its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 57.1% in the 4th quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 34,577 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 12,563 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in CenterPoint Energy by 7.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 847,366 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $24,930,000 after purchasing an additional 56,037 shares during 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.