CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Declares $0.20 Quarterly Dividend

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, August 5th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.20 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, September 12th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th.

CenterPoint Energy has increased its dividend by an average of 1.3% per year over the last three years. CenterPoint Energy has a dividend payout ratio of 46.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect CenterPoint Energy to earn $1.74 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 46.0%.

CenterPoint Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CNP traded down $0.07 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $25.81. 2,223,705 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,134,076. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.51 billion, a PE ratio of 18.23, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.92. CenterPoint Energy has a 52-week low of $25.42 and a 52-week high of $31.57. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $29.33 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.79.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.04. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 12.28% and a return on equity of 10.81%. The business had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.28 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CNP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Scotiabank cut their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley downgraded CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $28.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $32.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.73.

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.