CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.22

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 17th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of 0.22 per share by the utilities provider on Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.77%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This is an increase from CenterPoint Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21.

CenterPoint Energy has raised its dividend by an average of 1.3% annually over the last three years. CenterPoint Energy has a dividend payout ratio of 48.3% 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 $0.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 48.3%.

CenterPoint Energy Price Performance

CNP opened at $31.72 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.67 billion, a PE ratio of 21.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The business’s 50-day moving average is $30.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $29.43. CenterPoint Energy has a 1 year low of $25.41 and a 1 year high of $33.00.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.31. The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a net margin of 11.25% and a return on equity of 9.73%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.40 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and set a $28.00 price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Monday, August 26th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of CenterPoint Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Scotiabank raised CenterPoint Energy from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.27.

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.