TacticScaleWhat CenterPoint Energy Does & How It Makes Money (CNP)
Updated October 2026 · reflects CenterPoint Energy's latest reported financials
Houston-based utility delivering electricity and natural gas to U.S. customers. It earns regulated revenue from electric transmission and distribution, electricity generation in Indiana, and natural gas sales, transportation and distribution to residential, commercial and industrial customers.
How CenterPoint Energy makes money
It earns regulated revenue from electric transmission and distribution, electricity generation in Indiana, and natural gas sales, transportation and distribution to residential, commercial and industrial customers. Smaller amounts come from wholesale power market activity and home appliance and repair services.
What CenterPoint Energy does
CenterPoint Energy is a Houston-based public utility holding company founded in 1866. It operates through Electric, Natural Gas, and Corporate and Other segments. The Electric segment provides transmission and distribution services, owns generation assets in Indiana Electric's service territory, and optimizes those assets in the wholesale power market. As of December 31, 2025, the company owned 355 substations with 81,692 megavolt amperes of transformer capacity. The Natural Gas segment sells, transports and distributes gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers in Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio and Texas. It connects to interstate and intrastate pipelines and owns and operates about 208 miles of intrastate pipeline in Louisiana and Texas. The company also offers appliance maintenance and repair in Minnesota, and home repair protection plans through a third party in Indiana, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas. In total it serves about 2.86 million metered customers.
Products & services
- Electric transmission and distribution
- Electric generation (Indiana Electric)
- Natural gas distribution and sales
- Natural gas transportation
- Home appliance maintenance and repair (Minnesota)
- Home repair protection plans
What is CenterPoint Energy worth?
On an owner-earnings DCF, CenterPoint Energy's most-likely value is about $14 versus a recent price near $39 (63% above fair value). But TacticScale only calls a stock undervalued when the price sits below its conservative no-growth floor (~$8) with a margin of safety — so the honest verdict here is “Stretched — richly priced.” Fair value earns its keep only at the extremes, not in the wide middle.
Today's $39 is above even the optimistic Bull case ($18) — the market expects faster, longer growth than modeled here. Expensive unless that extra growth actually shows up.
⚠ High leverage — net debt is 40.8× annual cash flow. Net debt is subtracted from this fair value, but refinancing at higher rates, principal timing, and share dilution aren’t modeled — the equity can be worth far less if cash flow weakens.
Analysis, not advice. Fair value is a margin-of-safety estimate from a deterministic owner-earnings DCF, not a price target or recommendation. See the full breakdown →
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