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Centrica (LON: CNA) share price has been on fire this year. It has soared by more than 35% this year while the benchmark FTSE 100 index has risen by less than 5%. The shares also outshone other energy stocks like BP and Shell.
Growth to continue
Centrica is one of the biggest energy companies in the UK. The firm owns some of the best-known players in the sector like British Gas, Bord Gais Energy, and Centrica Business Solutions. It is also involved in upstream activity, marketing, and trading.
Centrica’s business has been doing well in the past few years. In 2022, its adjusted operating profit jumped to over 2.83 billion pounds from the previous 392 million pounds. It also resumed paying dividends, which it had paused in the previous year. Free cash flows rose to more than 2.4 billion pounds.
Analysts believe that Centrica’s business continued doing well in the last half of the year, helped by the decision by Ofgem decision to raise allowances for suppliers. As a result, the company recently noted that it will surpass the 585 million profit it made in 2010. This trend is being facilitated by the drop of energy price cap and a fall in wholesale prices.
Centrica is scheduled to publish its results on Thursday this week. With investors expecting solid results, their focus will be on the company’s forward guidance. A boost of guidance will likely push the stock higher for a while.
Analysts have a mixed opinion about Centrica share price. Berenberg has a hold rating on the company with a price target of 100p, which is lower than the current 123p. Barclays has a target of 156p while JP Morgan has a target of 70p.
Centrica share price forecast
On the daily chart, we see that the CNA share price has been in a strong bullish trend in the past few months. The stock has formed a near-perfect channel shown in orange. This channel connects the lowest and highest levels since December.
The stock has jumped above the 25-day and 50-day moving averages. Further, the Negative Volume Index (NVI) has moved above the 255-day moving average, which is a positive sign. Therefore. The stock will likely remain in this range in the coming days. The key support and resistance point to watch ahead of earnings are 122p and 125p.
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