Investing the Recovery Act - CenterPoint Energy Smart Meter

Deploying smart meter is crucial for the nation to manage the electrical grid more efficiently.  Itron Inc is the first company introduced in the Recovery Act Projects that benefits from the roll out of the smart meter.  Another company that received funding from smart meter is CenterPoint Energy (CNP) which is getting $200 million for the smart meter project in Houston, Texas.


The $200 million dollar project by CenterPoint Energy includes installation of 2.2 million smart meters for residential and commercial customers and installing distribution grid automation equipment and technology to allow CenterPoint Energy to operate the grid more efficiently and improve system reliability by allowing the grid to "self-heal".  In just last quarter the project allow CenterPoint Energy to support nearly 300 jobs and will eventually allow CenterPoint Energy to create 2,500 total direct and indirect jobs.


Shares of CenterPoint Energy are trading at near 52 weeks high at $16.09 per share and based on the technical trend the stock should continue to go up as both 20 day and 50 day moving average are going up.  The stock is a perfect long term defensive investment with its 19 cents or 4.85% annual dividend yield.