Centerpoint Energy Inc (CNP) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · Utilities · as of Sep 24, 2026
Centerpoint Energy Inc (CNP)
A forensic read on Centerpoint Energy Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Distress
Financial health
1.1
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
22.5
P / E (ttm)
9.4%
ROE
$24.5B
Market cap
2.86%
Dividend yield
8.3%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Centerpoint Energy Inc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.1, placing it in the Distress zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.
What the filings flag
+1.8%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +4% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+1.8%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~1.8% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2023 has been diluted ~3%.
FCF ($2.4B)
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $574M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($2.4B) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $2.5B — 23% of that. The entire return is coming from debt or cash reserves, not cash the business itself generated — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of.
4.2%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 4.2% in the latest fiscal year and steady across FY2023–FY2025, inside a 0.1-point range. The capital base behind it grew +16% across FY2023–FY2025, from $36.8B to $42.6B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the 4% the older base was already earning.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$9.36B
Revenue Growth YoY+8.3%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+3.7%
Net Margin11.2%
Free Cash Flow-$2.38B
Return on Equity9.4%
Debt / Equity2.06x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Centerpoint Energy Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?