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. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.77%.

CenterPoint Energy has raised its dividend payment by an average of 1.3% per year 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% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Price Performance

CNP stock opened at $28.85 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.78. CenterPoint Energy has a 52 week low of $25.42 and a 52 week high of $31.43. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $28.04 and its 200 day moving average is $28.02. The firm has a market cap of $18.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.92.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Evercore ISI cut shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and increased their price target for the company from $29.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Mizuho reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $29.00 target price (down from $30.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CenterPoint Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.18.

CenterPoint Energy Company Profile

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.