Westpac Banking Corp Has $834,000 Stock Holdings in CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS)

Westpac Banking Corp lowered its holdings in shares of CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) by 9.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 12,512 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,301 shares during the period. Westpac Banking Corp’s holdings in CMS Energy were worth $834,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. BankPlus Trust Department bought a new position in CMS Energy during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 106.8% in the fourth quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 455 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 235 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of CMS Energy by 2,900.0% during the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 720 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 696 shares during the last quarter. Robbins Farley acquired a new position in shares of CMS Energy in the fourth quarter worth approximately $62,000. Finally, Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in CMS Energy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $73,000. Institutional investors own 93.57% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on CMS shares. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of CMS Energy from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $69.00 target price on shares of CMS Energy in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays upgraded CMS Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $68.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price objective on CMS Energy from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $75.36.

CMS Energy Trading Down 3.6 %

Shares of CMS opened at $72.81 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $21.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.35. CMS Energy Co. has a fifty-two week low of $56.61 and a fifty-two week high of $76.45. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $71.24 and a 200 day moving average of $69.44.

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

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 17th were issued a $0.5425 dividend. This is a positive change 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 2.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.36%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.77, for a total value of $147,540.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 71,931 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,306,349.87. This trade represents a 2.71 % 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, CAO Scott B. Mcintosh sold 6,700 shares of the business’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 transaction of $467,392.00. Following 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 11,200 shares of company stock worth $789,532. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.