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

Shares of CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $75.36.

CMS has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays raised shares of CMS Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $68.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on CMS Energy from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of CMS Energy from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $69.00 price target on shares of CMS Energy in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on CMS Energy from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CMS Energy news, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.77, for a total value of $147,540.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 71,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,306,349.87. The trade was a 2.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Scott B. Mcintosh sold 6,700 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now 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. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 11,200 shares of company stock worth $789,532. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CMS Energy

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Smith Group Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of CMS Energy in the 4th quarter worth about $333,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 39.1% during the 4th quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 20,133 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,342,000 after purchasing an additional 5,662 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its stake in CMS Energy by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 76,560 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,103,000 after purchasing an additional 392 shares during the last quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. increased its position in CMS Energy by 49.9% in the fourth quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 26,808 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,787,000 after buying an additional 8,927 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of CMS Energy by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 170,698 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $11,377,000 after buying an additional 4,500 shares during the last quarter. 93.57% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CMS Energy Stock Down 0.5 %

CMS Energy stock opened at $73.17 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $69.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $69.15. CMS Energy has a one year low of $56.61 and a one year high of $75.06. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (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, equities analysts expect that CMS Energy will post 3.59 earnings per share for the current year.

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Monday, February 17th were paid a $0.5425 dividend. This represents a $2.17 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. CMS Energy’s payout ratio is 65.36%.

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.