CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) Trading 0.1% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS)’s share price shot up 0.1% during trading on Wednesday after Scotiabank raised their price target on the stock from $66.00 to $75.00. Scotiabank currently has a sector outperform rating on the stock. CMS Energy traded as high as $66.90 and last traded at $66.78. 76,199 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 97% from the average session volume of 2,331,149 shares. The stock had previously closed at $66.73.

CMS has been the topic of a number of other reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on CMS Energy from $61.00 to $58.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 24th. StockNews.com raised shares of CMS Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on CMS Energy from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 20th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of CMS Energy to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.36.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 1,667 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.98, for a total transaction of $99,986.66. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 68,330 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,098,433.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 1,667 shares of CMS Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.98, for a total value of $99,986.66. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 68,330 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,098,433.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Jon E. Barfield sold 2,360 shares of CMS Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.79, for a total transaction of $143,464.40. Following the transaction, the director now owns 14,556 shares in the company, valued at $884,859.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of CMS Energy

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in CMS Energy by 14.0% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 22,662,964 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,367,483,000 after purchasing an additional 2,786,071 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in CMS Energy by 101.7% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,891,027 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $410,223,000 after acquiring an additional 3,473,977 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of CMS Energy by 24.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 6,208,876 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $360,537,000 after acquiring an additional 1,234,791 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in CMS Energy by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,593,539 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $324,817,000 after purchasing an additional 65,966 shares during the period. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 320.9% during the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 4,305,602 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $250,026,000 after purchasing an additional 3,282,697 shares during the last quarter. 93.57% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

CMS Energy Price Performance

The stock has a fifty day moving average of $62.02 and a 200-day moving average of $60.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.36, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.63 by $0.03. CMS Energy had a net margin of 13.10% and a return on equity of 12.25%. The company had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.73 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.75 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that CMS Energy Co. will post 3.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CMS Energy Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 2nd will be paid a $0.51 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 2nd. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.05%. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 62.80%.

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.