Legal & General Group Plc Trims Stake in CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS)

Legal & General Group Plc lessened its holdings in CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) by 14.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,087,226 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 534,351 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in CMS Energy were worth $205,764,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BankPlus Trust Department bought a new position in shares of CMS Energy in the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 106.8% in the fourth quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 455 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 235 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 2,900.0% in the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 720 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 696 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Bank Ltd. bought a new position in shares of CMS Energy in the fourth quarter worth approximately $61,000. Finally, Robbins Farley bought a new position in shares of CMS Energy in the fourth quarter worth approximately $62,000. Institutional investors own 93.57% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of CMS Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of CMS Energy from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating and set a $69.00 price objective on shares of CMS Energy in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays upgraded shares of CMS Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $68.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $75.36.

CMS Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CMS opened at $71.29 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $71.70 and a 200-day moving average price of $69.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.57. The stock has a market cap of $21.30 billion, a PE ratio of 21.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.34. CMS Energy Co. has a 1 year low of $56.61 and a 1 year high of $76.45.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.01. CMS Energy had a net margin of 13.35% and a return on equity of 12.02%. Equities analysts anticipate that CMS Energy Co. will post 3.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Monday, February 17th were paid a dividend of $0.5425 per share. This represents a $2.17 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.04%. This is a boost from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.36%.

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, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.77, for a total value of $147,540.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 71,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,306,349.87. This trade represents a 2.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Scott B. Mcintosh sold 6,700 shares of CMS Energy stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 21,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,509,815.68. The trade was a 23.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 11,200 shares of company stock valued at $789,532. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.