Treasurer of the State of North Carolina Boosts Stock Holdings in CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS)

Treasurer of the State of North Carolina boosted its stake in CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) by 0.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 130,880 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 820 shares during the quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina’s holdings in CMS Energy were worth $8,723,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CMS. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in CMS Energy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $24,481,000. Martingale Asset Management L P bought a new position in shares of CMS Energy during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $274,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 615.2% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 347,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $23,168,000 after purchasing an additional 299,000 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia increased its position in CMS Energy by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 45,898 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,059,000 after purchasing an additional 1,588 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Polymer Capital Management US LLC purchased a new stake in CMS Energy during the fourth quarter valued at $2,666,000. Institutional investors own 93.57% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of CMS Energy from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 24th. Bank of America upped their price objective on CMS Energy from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 24th. StockNews.com raised CMS Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays upgraded CMS Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $68.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, UBS Group boosted 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. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $75.36.

CMS Energy Price Performance

CMS Energy stock opened at $71.76 on Monday. 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 $21.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.34. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $71.91 and a two-hundred day moving average of $69.49. 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 results on Thursday, February 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.01. CMS Energy had a return on equity of 12.02% and a net margin of 13.35%. On average, research analysts forecast that CMS Energy Co. will post 3.59 earnings per share for the current year.

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 17th were paid a dividend of $0.5425 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.17 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.02%. This is a positive change from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 65.36%.

Insider Activity at CMS Energy

In related news, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 2,000 shares of CMS Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.77, for a total transaction of $147,540.00. Following 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Scott B. Mcintosh sold 6,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.76, for a total value of $467,392.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 21,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,509,815.68. This represents a 23.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 11,200 shares of company stock worth $789,532 over the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.