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

Shares of CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) have been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the sixteen brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $70.36.

Several brokerages recently commented on CMS. StockNews.com downgraded shares of CMS Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 28th. KeyCorp increased their price target on CMS Energy from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on CMS Energy from $69.00 to $67.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays increased their target price on CMS Energy from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Mizuho cut CMS Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $76.00 to $72.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CMS Energy news, CAO Scott B. Mcintosh sold 936 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.50, for a total value of $64,116.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 24,417 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,672,564.50. This trade represents a 3.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.17, for a total transaction of $136,340.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 64,771 shares in the company, valued at $4,415,439.07. This trade represents a 3.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CMS Energy

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 275 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in CMS Energy in the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new stake in CMS Energy during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $43,000. Covestor Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 206.1% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 701 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 472 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Values First Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of CMS Energy in the third quarter valued at approximately $56,000. 93.57% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

CMS Energy Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of CMS stock opened at $67.32 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $69.13 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $66.13. The company has a market cap of $20.11 billion, a PE ratio of 19.23, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.41. CMS Energy has a fifty-two week low of $55.10 and a fifty-two week high of $72.40. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. CMS Energy had a return on equity of 12.81% and a net margin of 14.01%. CMS Energy’s revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.61 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that CMS Energy will post 3.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 13th were issued a $0.515 dividend. This is an increase from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 13th. CMS Energy’s payout ratio is presently 58.86%.

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.