Forensic Analysis · Utilities · as of Aug 11, 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.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.1
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
24.1
P / E (ttm)
9.4%
ROE
$26.3B
Market cap
2.36%
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). 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 C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.1, placing it in the Grey zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.
What the filings flag
+1.2%/yr
FY2022–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +4% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+1.2%/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 ~1.2% 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 FY2022 has been diluted ~4%.
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 — slightly below its ~6% cost of capital — reinvestment is roughly a wash.
$185M
FY2020–FY2020
Goodwill impairments.Took $185M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2020 ($185M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
-35%
FY2019→FY2020
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~35% in FY2020 (from FY2019) and hasn't been restored since. It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$9.36B
Revenue Growth YoY+8.3%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+0.1%
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?