CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) Shares Up 2% – Here’s Why

CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) rose 2% on Friday . The company traded as high as $74.51 and last traded at $74.60. Approximately 303,400 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 2,125,473 shares. The stock had previously closed at $73.15.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on CMS. UBS Group raised their price objective on CMS Energy from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays raised shares of CMS Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $68.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com raised CMS Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on CMS Energy from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $75.36.

CMS Energy Price Performance

The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $70.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $69.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.48, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.57.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.01. CMS Energy had a return on equity of 12.02% and a net margin of 13.35%. On average, research analysts forecast that CMS Energy Co. will post 3.59 EPS for the current year.

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 17th were paid a $0.5425 dividend. This represents a $2.17 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.91%. This is a positive change from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 65.36%.

Insider Transactions at CMS Energy

In other CMS Energy news, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 2,000 shares of CMS Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.77, for a total transaction of $147,540.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 71,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,306,349.87. This trade represents a 2.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Scott B. Mcintosh sold 6,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.76, for a total value of $467,392.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 21,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,509,815.68. This represents a 23.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,200 shares of company stock valued at $789,532 over the last ninety days. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in CMS Energy by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,459 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $297,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. Private Trust Co. NA lifted its position in shares of CMS Energy by 25.6% during the 3rd quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 982 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. increased its holdings in CMS Energy by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 3,996 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $266,000 after acquiring an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC raised its stake in CMS Energy by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 4,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $317,000 after acquiring an additional 220 shares during the period. Finally, Stephens Consulting LLC lifted its holdings in CMS Energy by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC now owns 4,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $288,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. 93.57% of the stock is owned by 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.