CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Raised to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) was upgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Saturday.

CNP has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a report on Monday, December 29th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Barclays reduced their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $41.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $41.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.45.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CNP opened at $39.75 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.76, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.38. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $38.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.40. The firm has a market cap of $25.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.16, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.59. CenterPoint Energy has a 1 year low of $31.76 and a 1 year high of $40.50.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 23rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.04. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.25% and a net margin of 11.37%.The firm had revenue of $1.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.04 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.31 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at CenterPoint Energy

In related news, Director Phillip R. Smith sold 6,200 shares of CenterPoint Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.83, for a total transaction of $240,746.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 65,577 shares in the company, valued at $2,546,354.91. The trade was a 8.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of CenterPoint Energy

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its stake in CenterPoint Energy by 23.3% during the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 171,036 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,636,000 after buying an additional 32,344 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 31.1% in the third quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 350,798 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $13,611,000 after acquiring an additional 83,127 shares during the period. OCONNOR A Distinct Business Unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC bought a new stake in shares of CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter worth $19,274,000. Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC purchased a new stake in CenterPoint Energy during the second quarter valued at $1,885,000. Finally, Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in CenterPoint Energy in the second quarter valued at about $937,000. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

About CenterPoint Energy

CenterPoint Energy, Inc (NYSE: CNP) is a Houston-based regulated utility company that provides electric and natural gas delivery services and related infrastructure operations. The company’s principal activities center on the transmission and distribution of electricity in the greater Houston metropolitan area and the distribution of natural gas to customers across several states in the Midwest and South. As a vertically integrated utility, CenterPoint focuses on the reliable delivery of energy through owned and operated networks of lines, pipelines and associated facilities.

CenterPoint’s core businesses include regulated electric transmission and distribution services, regulated natural gas distribution, and the operation and maintenance of energy infrastructure.