CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) Lowered to Sell Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report published on Thursday morning.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on CMS Energy in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $76.00 target price for the company. Mizuho downgraded shares of CMS Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $76.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of CMS Energy from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $66.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on CMS Energy from $69.00 to $67.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.21.

CMS Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CMS stock opened at $69.71 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $69.74 and a two-hundred day moving average of $65.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.83 billion, a PE ratio of 19.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. CMS Energy has a 52 week low of $55.10 and a 52 week high of $72.40.

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

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 13th were issued a $0.515 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 13th. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.96%. This is a boost from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 58.86%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CMS Energy news, CAO Scott B. Mcintosh sold 936 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.50, for a total transaction of $64,116.00. Following 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 2,000 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 64,771 shares in the company, valued at $4,415,439.07. This represents a 3.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CMS Energy

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew 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 valued at $537,503,000 after purchasing an additional 719,093 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,509,770 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $528,713,000 after buying an additional 105,062 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased 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 worth $152,267,000 after buying an additional 18,403 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 25,196 shares during the period. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. grew its position in CMS Energy by 105.9% during 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 acquiring an additional 800,344 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.57% of the company’s stock.

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.