CenterPoint Energy downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan

JPMorgan downgraded CenterPoint Energy to Neutral from Overweight with a price target of $29, down from $32. The company has come under continued severe pressure for its Hurricane Beryl storm response, with prolonged outages and communications issues leading to push back from Texas politicians and regulators, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm says this has culminated in the unexpected withdrawal of CenterPoint’s Houston rate case application in the face of continued scrutiny from the state, despite near term settlement confidence highlighted on the earnings call earlier this week. The “sudden pivot and broader rhetoric” in Texas on various potential penalties for CenterPoint “have now built into a meaningful overhang feeding into continued stock underperformance.”