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

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) announced 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 raised its dividend payment 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 payout ratio of 46.0% meaning 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 Stock Performance

CNP opened at $28.86 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $28.04 and a two-hundred day moving average of $28.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.27 billion, a PE ratio of 21.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82. CenterPoint Energy has a 12-month low of $25.42 and a 12-month high of $31.43.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on CNP. KeyCorp upped their price objective on CenterPoint Energy from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Guggenheim lowered 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. Mizuho reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $29.00 price target (down previously from $30.00) on shares of CenterPoint Energy in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Scotiabank cut their price target on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of CenterPoint Energy from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company 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.