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

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, April 26th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given 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 raised its dividend by an average of 1.3% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 3 years. CenterPoint Energy has a dividend payout ratio of 46.0% indicating that 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 1.7 %

Shares of CNP traded down $0.49 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $28.85. The stock had a trading volume of 3,331,569 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,231,974. CenterPoint Energy has a 12 month low of $25.42 and a 12 month high of $31.43. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $28.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.00. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82. The company has a market capitalization of $18.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.92.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32. The business had revenue of $2.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. CenterPoint Energy had a return on equity of 10.44% and a net margin of 10.55%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CNP. Evercore ISI lowered CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and raised their target price for the company from $29.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Barclays raised their target price on CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. KeyCorp increased their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Mizuho reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $29.00 price target (down previously from $30.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Guggenheim cut their price target on CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.