CenterPoint Hits 52-Week High Backed By Customer Addition
Zacks Investment Research | Apr 17, 2017 09:05PM ET
CenterPoint Energy Inc. (NYSE:CNP) hit a new 52-week high of $28.24 on Apr 17. The stock delivered a one-year return of about 34.5%, while the S&P 500 gained 10.5% over the same time frame.
Over the past one year, CenterPoint Energy’s share price has ranged from a low of $20.46 to a high of $28.24. Average volume of shares traded over the last three months is approximately 3 million.
Factors that Back the Rise
CenterPoint Energy reported positive earnings surprise in two out of the last four quarters, resulting in a positive average surprise of 0.40%. The long term earnings growth of the company is pegged at 5.00%.
A steady growth in customer count has mainly driven CenterPoint Energy’s performance over the last several quarters. In 2016, the company added over 54,000 meter customers under its Electric Transmission & Distribution segment. This represents an annual growth rate of 2%. Moreover, CenterPoint added 35,000 users at the Gas Utility business last year.
In Jan 2017, the company’s unit, CES, completed the acquisition of Atmos Energy's retail energy services business, Atmos Energy Marketing, LLC. The acquisition will allow CenterPoint Energy Services to gain access to new markets and customer segments more efficiently. Moreover, Atmos Energy Marketing’s operational and geographic footprint will enable it to unlock growth opportunities and maintain focus on improving customer service and creating a cost-effective organizational structure.
CenterPoint Energy invested in excess of $1.4 billion in 2016 to strengthen its infrastructure and improve reliability of its operations. The company plans to invest nearly $1.5 billion in 2017 and has set a capital outlay of $7.0 billion from 2017 through 2021.The systematic investment plans will help it to achieve its targeted annual earnings growth of 4%–6%.
Thanks to the positive development, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2017 and 2018 moved up by 1.6% and 0.8% in the last 60 days and is presently pegged at $1.29 and $1.35, respectively.
Price Movement
In the last twelve months, CenterPoint Energy’s shares returned 34.4%, outperforming the Zacks categorized Zacks Investment Research
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