Proficio Capital Partners LLC Buys Shares of 74,086 CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 74,086 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,938,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CMS. BankPlus Trust Department acquired a new position in CMS Energy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in CMS Energy by 106.8% in the fourth quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 455 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 235 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in CMS Energy by 171.9% in 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 period. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in CMS Energy in the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Robbins Farley acquired a new position in shares of CMS Energy during the fourth quarter worth approximately $62,000. 93.57% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CMS. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on CMS Energy from $69.00 to $67.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded CMS Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on CMS Energy from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $69.00 target price on shares of CMS Energy in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays raised CMS Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $68.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $73.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CMS Energy news, 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 transaction of $1,893,187.50. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 144,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,486,285.15. This represents a 16.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.77, for a total value of $147,540.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 71,931 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,306,349.87. This represents a 2.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 39,950 shares of company stock valued at $2,682,720 over the last three months. 0.53% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

CMS Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CMS opened at $72.83 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80. CMS Energy Co. has a 1 year low of $56.61 and a 1 year high of $75.06. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $69.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $68.93. The firm has a market cap of $21.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.35.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.01. CMS Energy had a return on equity of 12.02% and a net margin of 13.35%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that CMS Energy Co. will post 3.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 17th were given a dividend of $0.5425 per share. This represents a $2.17 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.98%. This is an increase from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 65.36%.

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.