FY2024 EPS Forecast for CenterPoint Energy Lifted by Analyst

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) – Equities research analysts at Scotiabank upped their FY2024 earnings per share estimates for shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, January 8th. Scotiabank analyst A. Weisel now anticipates that the utilities provider will post earnings of $1.63 per share for the year, up from their previous forecast of $1.61. Scotiabank has a “Sector Outperform” rating and a $35.00 price objective on the stock. The consensus estimate for CenterPoint Energy’s current full-year earnings is $1.62 per share. Scotiabank also issued estimates for CenterPoint Energy’s FY2025 earnings at $1.75 EPS.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.31. The business had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 9.73% and a net margin of 11.25%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.40 EPS.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on CNP. UBS Group upgraded CenterPoint Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH assumed coverage on CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $34.50 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com cut CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.27.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CNP opened at $31.84 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $31.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.75 billion, a PE ratio of 21.09, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.95. CenterPoint Energy has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $33.00.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CenterPoint Energy

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake 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 valued at $442,231,000 after buying an additional 370,790 shares during the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 5.2% in the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 5,009,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $147,387,000 after purchasing an additional 247,944 shares during the period. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased 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 during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 1.3% in the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 4,043,757 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $125,275,000 after purchasing an additional 53,655 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of CenterPoint Energy by 2.9% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,956,432 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $116,398,000 after purchasing an additional 110,905 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

CenterPoint Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.76%. This is a boost from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. CenterPoint Energy’s payout ratio is currently 58.28%.

About CenterPoint Energy

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.