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

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 paid 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 by an average of 1.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 3 consecutive years. CenterPoint Energy has a dividend 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 Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of CNP traded down $0.49 on Friday, hitting $28.85. 3,331,569 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,231,974. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.92. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $28.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $28.00. CenterPoint Energy has a 1 year low of $25.42 and a 1 year high of $31.43.

CenterPoint Energy (NYSE:CNP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.32. The business had revenue of $2.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 firm posted $0.28 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict 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 a number of recent analyst reports. Mizuho reaffirmed 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. Barclays raised their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Scotiabank cut their target price 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. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of 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 note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Finally, Guggenheim cut their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $33.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock 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. According to data from MarketBeat, CenterPoint Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average 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.