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

CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $70.36.

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CMS. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on CMS Energy from $77.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on CMS Energy from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com cut shares of CMS Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 28th. Jefferies Financial Group started 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. Finally, Mizuho downgraded shares of CMS Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $76.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th.

Insider Activity at CMS Energy

In other CMS Energy news, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 2,000 shares of CMS Energy stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.17, for a total value of $136,340.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 64,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,415,439.07. The trade was a 3.00 % 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, CAO Scott B. Mcintosh sold 936 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 33,686 shares of company stock valued at $2,228,084 in the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CMS Energy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CMS. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. boosted its holdings in CMS Energy by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 11,925 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $842,000 after purchasing an additional 1,147 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 1,631 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its position 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 worth $18,075,000 after acquiring an additional 228,501 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 719,093 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 109,424 shares in the last quarter. 93.57% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CMS Energy Price Performance

CMS opened at $66.34 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $67.68 and its 200 day moving average price is $66.88. CMS Energy has a 12-month low of $55.10 and a 12-month high of $72.40. The firm has a market cap of $19.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.95, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.42. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 14.01% and a return on equity of 12.81%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.61 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that CMS Energy will post 3.33 earnings per share for the current year.

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 13th were given a dividend of $0.515 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 13th. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.11%. This is a boost from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. CMS Energy’s payout ratio is 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.