Short Interest in CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) Drops By 5.4%

CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) saw a large drop in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,010,000 shares, a drop of 5.4% from the October 31st total of 8,470,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,150,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.7 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at CMS Energy

In related news, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.17, for a total value of $136,340.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 64,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,415,439.07. This represents a 3.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Scott B. Mcintosh sold 936 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.50, for a total value of $64,116.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 24,417 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,672,564.50. This represents a 3.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.53% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CMS. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 101.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 3,473,977 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in CMS Energy by 310.2% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,125,859 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $79,519,000 after buying an additional 851,364 shares in the last quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in CMS Energy by 105.9% in the second quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,555,898 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $92,623,000 after buying an additional 800,344 shares in the last quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd purchased a new position in CMS Energy in the second quarter valued at about $47,082,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in shares of CMS Energy by 404.8% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 892,734 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $63,053,000 after acquiring an additional 715,891 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.57% of the company’s stock.

CMS Energy Stock Performance

NYSE:CMS opened at $68.26 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $20.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 0.83. CMS Energy has a 1-year low of $55.10 and a 1-year high of $72.40. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $69.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $65.85.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. CMS Energy had a net margin of 14.01% and a return on equity of 12.81%. The business’s revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.61 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that CMS Energy will post 3.33 EPS for the current year.

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 13th were issued a $0.515 dividend. This is a boost from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. This represents a $2.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.02%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 13th. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 58.86%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on CMS. StockNews.com cut CMS Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 28th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of CMS Energy from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of CMS Energy from $69.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Mizuho lowered CMS Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $76.00 to $72.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.21.

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.