Caprock Group LLC Acquires Shares of 3,556 CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS)

Caprock Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 3,556 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $237,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CMS. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 171.9% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 435 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 275 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new stake in shares of CMS Energy in the third quarter worth about $40,000. Covestor Ltd increased its holdings in CMS Energy by 206.1% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 701 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 472 shares during the period. Values First Advisors Inc. bought a new position in CMS Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $56,000. Finally, Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. lifted its holdings in CMS Energy by 25.7% in the 3rd quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. now owns 798 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 163 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.57% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at CMS Energy

In other news, CAO Scott B. Mcintosh sold 936 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.50, for a total transaction of $64,116.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 24,417 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,672,564.50. The trade was a 3.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director John G. Russell sold 28,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.85, for a total value of $1,893,187.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 144,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,486,285.15. This trade represents a 16.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 33,686 shares of company stock worth $2,228,084. 0.53% of the stock is owned by insiders.

CMS Energy Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE CMS opened at $68.19 on Friday. CMS Energy Co. has a 52-week low of $55.10 and a 52-week high of $72.40. The company has a market cap of $20.38 billion, a PE ratio of 19.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.42. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $66.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $67.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 1.23.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.01. CMS Energy had a net margin of 14.01% and a return on equity of 12.81%. On average, equities research analysts expect that CMS Energy Co. will post 3.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 17th will be paid a $0.5425 dividend. This is an increase from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.17 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.18%. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 58.86%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CMS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of CMS Energy from $77.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of CMS Energy from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on CMS Energy from $69.00 to $67.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Mizuho cut CMS Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $76.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of CMS Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $71.00.

CMS Energy Company Profile

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.