CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) Receives $75.36 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seven have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $75.36.

CMS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays upgraded shares of CMS Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $68.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com upgraded CMS Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. UBS Group lifted their price target on CMS Energy from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of CMS Energy from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of CMS Energy from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th.

Insider Activity

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Empowered Funds LLC raised its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 11.5% during the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 5,028 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $355,000 after acquiring an additional 517 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in CMS Energy by 171.9% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 435 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 275 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in CMS Energy by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,822,389 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $128,715,000 after purchasing an additional 25,196 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. lifted its position in shares of CMS Energy by 43.0% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 6,448 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $455,000 after purchasing an additional 1,940 shares during the period. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 35.5% during the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 26,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,876,000 after purchasing an additional 6,959 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.57% of the company’s stock.

CMS Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CMS opened at $75.20 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.35. CMS Energy has a 52-week low of $56.61 and a 52-week high of $75.55. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $70.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $69.31.

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

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 17th were paid a dividend of $0.5425 per share. This is a boost from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.17 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.89%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 65.36%.

CMS Energy Company 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.