CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $70.36.

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on CMS shares. StockNews.com cut shares of CMS Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 28th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of CMS Energy from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of CMS Energy in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $76.00 price target for the company. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on CMS Energy from $77.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on CMS Energy from $70.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th.

CMS Energy Stock Down 0.1 %

CMS stock opened at $65.76 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $19.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.79, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.41. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $68.86 and a two-hundred day moving average of $66.23. CMS Energy has a 12 month low of $55.10 and a 12 month high of $72.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. CMS Energy had a return on equity of 12.81% and a net margin of 14.01%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.61 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that CMS Energy will post 3.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 13th were given a $0.515 dividend. This is an increase from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. This represents a $2.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 13th. CMS Energy’s payout ratio is currently 58.86%.

Insider Transactions at CMS Energy

In related news, CAO Scott B. Mcintosh sold 936 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.50, for a total transaction of $64,116.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.17, for a total value 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 $4,415,439.07. This represents a 3.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 4,936 shares of company stock valued at $334,896. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of CMS Energy

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quest Partners LLC grew its holdings in CMS Energy by 130,804.3% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 30,108 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,792,000 after acquiring an additional 30,085 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 6.2% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 27,850 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,658,000 after purchasing an additional 1,631 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC increased its holdings in CMS Energy by 992.4% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 251,525 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $18,075,000 after buying an additional 228,501 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in CMS Energy by 10.4% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,610,120 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $537,503,000 after buying an additional 719,093 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in CMS Energy by 14.1% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 884,878 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $52,677,000 after buying an additional 109,424 shares during the last quarter. 93.57% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.