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

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, April 26th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of 0.20 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, June 13th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.77%.

CenterPoint Energy has increased its dividend payment by an average of 1.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 3 years. CenterPoint Energy has a payout ratio of 46.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 Down 1.6 %

CNP stock opened at $28.86 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy has a 12 month low of $25.42 and a 12 month high of $31.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The company has a market cap of $18.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $28.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.01.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 10.55% and a return on equity of 10.44%. The business had revenue of $2.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.83 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.28 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on CNP. Guggenheim lowered their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Evercore ISI lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $29.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Scotiabank dropped 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 note on Monday, April 22nd. Barclays raised their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, Mizuho reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $29.00 price target (down from $30.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.18.

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.