CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.04 EPS

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The utilities provider reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04, Briefing.com reports. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.03% and a return on equity of 10.57%. The business had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.28 EPS. CenterPoint Energy updated its FY 2024 guidance to 1.610-1.630 EPS and its FY24 guidance to $1.62 EPS.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CNP stock traded down $0.58 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $27.93. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,782,473 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,737,624. The company has a 50 day moving average of $30.01 and a 200 day moving average of $28.88. The stock has a market cap of $17.87 billion, a PE ratio of 19.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81. CenterPoint Energy has a 12-month low of $25.42 and a 12-month high of $31.57.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Barry T. Smitherman sold 5,670 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.42, for a total value of $166,811.40. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 21,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $623,792.26. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on CNP. KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $31.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 20th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $30.50.

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.