CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) Reaches New 52-Week High After Analyst Upgrade

CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday after KeyCorp raised their price target on the stock from $68.00 to $73.00. KeyCorp currently has an overweight rating on the stock. CMS Energy traded as high as $70.64 and last traded at $70.36, with a volume of 100017 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $70.09.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Barclays lifted their price objective on CMS Energy from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of CMS Energy from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of CMS Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $67.75.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CMS Energy

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 48,203.8% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 50,719 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,059,000 after buying an additional 50,614 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in CMS Energy by 16.4% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 352,451 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $21,267,000 after acquiring an additional 49,630 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of CMS Energy by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,038,851 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $60,326,000 after purchasing an additional 18,636 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 132.8% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 1,071,473 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $62,100,000 after purchasing an additional 611,282 shares during the period. Finally, Duality Advisers LP increased its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 1,854.4% in the 1st quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 114,193 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,890,000 after purchasing an additional 108,350 shares in the last quarter. 93.57% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CMS Energy Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $21.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.49, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.40. The company’s 50 day moving average is $65.46 and its 200 day moving average is $61.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 0.87.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.73 billion. CMS Energy had a net margin of 13.10% and a return on equity of 12.25%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.75 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that CMS Energy Co. will post 3.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CMS Energy Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 2nd were given a dividend of $0.51 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 2nd. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.89%. CMS Energy’s payout ratio is 62.80%.

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.