Wealthfront Advisers LLC Sells 76,476 Shares of CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS)

Wealthfront Advisers LLC cut its stake in shares of CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) by 97.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,789 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 76,476 shares during the period. Wealthfront Advisers LLC’s holdings in CMS Energy were worth $119,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. BankPlus Trust Department bought a new position in CMS Energy during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in CMS Energy by 171.9% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in CMS Energy by 106.8% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in CMS Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in CMS Energy by 2,900.0% during the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 720 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 696 shares in the last quarter. 93.57% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

CMS Energy Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of CMS opened at $73.25 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $69.19 and a 200 day moving average of $68.97. CMS Energy Co. has a fifty-two week low of $56.61 and a fifty-two week high of $75.06. The firm has a market cap of $21.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.79.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.87 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, research analysts forecast that CMS Energy Co. will post 3.59 EPS for the current year.

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 17th were paid a $0.5425 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.17 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.96%. This is an increase from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 65.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Scott B. Mcintosh sold 6,700 shares of CMS Energy stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.76, for a total transaction of $467,392.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 21,643 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,509,815.68. This trade represents a 23.64 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John G. Russell sold 28,750 shares of CMS Energy stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.85, for a total value of $1,893,187.50. Following the sale, the director now owns 144,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,486,285.15. This trade represents a 16.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 39,950 shares of company stock worth $2,682,720 in the last quarter. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

CMS Energy 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.