Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Buys New Stake in CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 17,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,022,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Headinvest LLC purchased a new stake in shares of CMS Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA purchased a new stake in shares of CMS Energy during the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Tobam lifted its position in shares of CMS Energy by 2,432.3% during the fourth quarter. Tobam now owns 785 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 754 shares in the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC purchased a new position in shares of CMS Energy in the fourth quarter valued at $47,000. Finally, Quent Capital LLC grew its holdings in CMS Energy by 63.8% during the 4th quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 829 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 323 shares in the last quarter. 93.57% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on CMS. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of CMS Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. UBS Group lowered CMS Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Guggenheim raised CMS Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $60.00 to $64.00 in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $58.00 to $57.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $63.00.

CMS Energy Price Performance

CMS opened at $60.28 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $58.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $57.36. CMS Energy Co. has a fifty-two week low of $49.87 and a fifty-two week high of $63.76. The firm has a market cap of $18.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.38.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.62 billion. CMS Energy had a return on equity of 12.09% and a net margin of 11.89%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that CMS Energy Co. will post 3.33 earnings per share for the current year.

CMS Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.515 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 14th. This represents a $2.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.42%. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.44%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 3,500 shares of CMS Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.78, for a total transaction of $202,230.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 68,971 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,985,144.38. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.53% of the company’s stock.

About CMS Energy

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.