Shares of utility CenterPoint Energy (NYSE: CNP) shot higher by nearly 20% at the market open on May 7 before settling down to a gain of around 11% by 11:30 a.m. EDT. The big news for the day was the company's earnings release, but it wasn't your run-of-the-mill recap of the previous quarter.
CenterPoint posted a first-quarter 2020 loss of $2.44 per share versus a profit of $0.28 in the same period of 2019. That's terrible by any stretch of the imagination. But there's some caveats, including roughly $1.6 billion worth of impairment charges taken in the just-ended quarter. Those charges relate mainly to the company midstream segment, which consists of a stake in Enable Midstream Partners. The midstream partnership's units have fallen nearly 80% from their mid-2018 peak. This is where things get interesting.
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