Viking Fund Management LLC Boosts Holdings in CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS)

Viking Fund Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) by 36.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 60,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,000 shares during the period. Viking Fund Management LLC’s holdings in CMS Energy were worth $4,238,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of 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 worth $410,223,000 after buying an additional 3,473,977 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 14.0% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 22,662,964 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,367,483,000 after purchasing an additional 2,786,071 shares in the last quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 105.9% in the 2nd quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,555,898 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $92,623,000 after purchasing an additional 800,344 shares in the last quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of CMS Energy during the 2nd quarter worth about $47,082,000. Finally, Lord Abbett & CO. LLC increased its position in CMS Energy by 221.2% during the 1st quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 1,113,989 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $67,218,000 after purchasing an additional 767,189 shares in the last quarter. 93.57% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CMS. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of CMS Energy from $66.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. StockNews.com upgraded CMS Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on CMS Energy from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Mizuho upped their target price on CMS Energy from $65.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.38.

CMS Energy Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of CMS traded up $0.20 during trading on Friday, reaching $69.34. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,277,603 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,301,306. The company has a market cap of $20.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80. The company has a fifty day moving average of $68.43 and a two-hundred day moving average of $63.45. CMS Energy Co. has a twelve month low of $52.12 and a twelve month high of $71.57.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.73 billion. CMS Energy had a net margin of 13.10% and a return on equity of 12.25%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.75 earnings per share. On average, sell-side 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 was paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.51 per share. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 2nd. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 62.80%.

CMS Energy 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.