CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (CNP) to Distribute Quarterly Dividend of $0.20 on June 13th

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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.77%.

CenterPoint Energy has increased its dividend by an average of 1.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 3 consecutive 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 1.7 %

Shares of CNP opened at $28.85 on Friday. CenterPoint Energy has a 52 week low of $25.42 and a 52 week high of $31.43. The firm has a market cap of $18.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $28.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.02. 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 (NYSE:CNP) last announced 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. 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.28 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that CenterPoint Energy will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CNP has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Evercore ISI lowered shares of CenterPoint Energy from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $29.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Mizuho restated a “neutral” rating and set a $29.00 target price (down previously from $30.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Scotiabank decreased 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 report on Monday, April 22nd. Barclays increased their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average 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.