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

Shares of CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six investment 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 $70.29.

A number of analysts have recently commented on CMS shares. Bank of America boosted their price target on CMS Energy from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on CMS Energy from $63.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com raised shares of CMS Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of CMS Energy from $66.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th.

Insider Activity at CMS Energy

In related news, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.17, for a total value of $136,340.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 64,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,415,439.07. This represents a 3.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.53% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CMS Energy

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CMS. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in CMS Energy by 10.4% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,610,120 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $537,503,000 after purchasing an additional 719,093 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,509,770 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $528,713,000 after buying an additional 105,062 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position in shares of CMS Energy by 0.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,155,842 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $152,267,000 after acquiring an additional 18,403 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 1.4% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,822,389 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $128,715,000 after acquiring an additional 25,196 shares in the last quarter. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. increased its position in CMS Energy by 105.9% during the second quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,555,898 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $92,623,000 after acquiring an additional 800,344 shares during the period. 93.57% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CMS Energy Price Performance

NYSE CMS opened at $68.57 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 1.23. The stock has a market cap of $20.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.59, a PEG ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.41. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $69.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $65.38. CMS Energy has a 52-week low of $55.10 and a 52-week high of $72.40.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $1.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. CMS Energy had a net margin of 14.01% and a return on equity of 12.81%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.61 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate 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 will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 13th will be issued a $0.515 dividend. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.00%. This is a boost from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 13th. CMS Energy’s dividend 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.