CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) Price Target Raised to $68.00

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) had its price target upped by BMO Capital Markets from $67.00 to $68.00 in a report published on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on CMS. Wolfe Research raised shares of CMS Energy from a peer perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $62.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Guggenheim raised shares of CMS Energy from a neutral rating to a buy rating and raised their price target for the stock from $60.00 to $64.00 in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $65.00 to $63.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $67.00 to $66.00 and set a sector outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $63.33.

CMS Energy Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of CMS opened at $60.20 on Friday. CMS Energy has a twelve month low of $49.87 and a twelve month high of $63.76. The company has a market cap of $17.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.35, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.52.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.05. CMS Energy had a net margin of 13.19% and a return on equity of 12.83%. The business had revenue of $2.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.32 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.70 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that CMS Energy will post 3.32 EPS for the current year.

CMS Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.515 per share. This represents a $2.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 14th. CMS Energy’s payout ratio is 62.80%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CMS Energy news, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.78, for a total transaction of $202,230.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 68,971 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,985,144.38. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.53% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CMS. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 68.4% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 64,072 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,721,000 after buying an additional 26,034 shares in the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 49.9% in the 3rd quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 302,221 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,051,000 after buying an additional 100,618 shares in the last quarter. New England Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 38.8% in the 3rd quarter. New England Asset Management Inc. now owns 132,950 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,061,000 after buying an additional 37,147 shares in the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 203,564 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $11,821,000 after buying an additional 7,188 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of CMS Energy in the 4th quarter valued at about $4,390,000. 93.57% of the stock is currently 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.