StockNews.com Upgrades CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) to “Hold”

StockNews.com upgraded shares of CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Wednesday morning.

CMS has been the subject of several other reports. Barclays raised their price objective on CMS Energy from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Guggenheim downgraded CMS Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Mizuho cut shares of CMS Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $76.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of CMS Energy from $70.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $71.15.

CMS Energy Trading Up 0.5 %

CMS stock opened at $68.69 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $66.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $67.80. CMS Energy has a fifty-two week low of $55.10 and a fifty-two week high of $72.40. The firm has a market cap of $20.52 billion, a PE ratio of 19.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 1.23.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.01. CMS Energy had a net margin of 14.01% and a return on equity of 12.81%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that CMS Energy will post 3.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Monday, February 17th will be paid a $0.5425 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.17 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.16%. This is a boost from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 58.86%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CMS Energy news, Director John G. Russell sold 28,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.85, for a total transaction of $1,893,187.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 144,059 shares in the company, valued at $9,486,285.15. This represents a 16.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.17, for a total value of $136,340.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 64,771 shares in the company, valued at $4,415,439.07. This trade represents a 3.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 33,686 shares of company stock worth $2,228,084 in the last ninety days. 0.53% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CMS Energy

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in CMS Energy by 10.4% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,610,120 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $537,503,000 after purchasing an additional 719,093 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of CMS Energy by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,509,770 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $528,713,000 after purchasing an additional 105,062 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,155,842 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $152,267,000 after purchasing an additional 18,403 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of CMS Energy by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,879,271 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $125,253,000 after purchasing an additional 56,882 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp grew its stake in CMS Energy by 10.0% during the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,621,562 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $108,077,000 after buying an additional 147,540 shares during the last quarter. 93.57% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.