CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $70.36.

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. KeyCorp raised their target price on CMS Energy from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com downgraded CMS Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 28th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $70.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of CMS Energy from $69.00 to $67.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of CMS Energy from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.17, for a total transaction of $136,340.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 64,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,415,439.07. The trade was a 3.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director John G. Russell sold 28,750 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.85, for a total value of $1,893,187.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 144,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,486,285.15. This represents a 16.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 33,686 shares of company stock worth $2,228,084. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of CMS Energy

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CMS. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 101.7% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,891,027 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $410,223,000 after purchasing an additional 3,473,977 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates lifted its position in CMS Energy by 310.2% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,125,859 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $79,519,000 after buying an additional 851,364 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in CMS Energy by 404.8% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 892,734 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $63,053,000 after buying an additional 715,891 shares during the period. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. increased its position in shares of CMS Energy by 552.9% during the third quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 566,025 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $39,978,000 after acquiring an additional 479,336 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 155.2% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 767,100 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $45,665,000 after acquiring an additional 466,500 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.57% of the company’s stock.

CMS Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CMS Energy stock opened at $66.34 on Thursday. CMS Energy has a one year low of $55.10 and a one year high of $72.40. The company has a market capitalization of $19.82 billion, a PE ratio of 18.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 1.23. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $67.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.88.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.06. CMS Energy had a return on equity of 12.81% and a net margin of 14.01%. The firm had revenue of $1.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.61 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that CMS Energy will post 3.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 13th were paid a $0.515 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 13th. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.11%. This is a boost from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 58.86%.

About CMS Energy

CMS Energy Corporation operates as an energy company primarily in Michigan. The company operates through three segments: Electric Utility; Gas Utility; and Enterprises. The Electric Utility segment is involved in the generation, purchase, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity. This segment generates electricity through coal, wind, gas, renewable energy, oil, and nuclear sources.