Guggenheim Raises CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) Price Target to $67.00

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) had its price target increased by Guggenheim from $66.00 to $67.00 in a report published on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. Guggenheim currently has a buy rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

CMS has been the subject of several other research reports. KeyCorp increased their price objective on CMS Energy from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Monday, May 20th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on CMS Energy from $67.00 to $66.00 and set a sector outperform rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 22nd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on CMS Energy from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, May 14th. UBS Group downgraded CMS Energy from a buy rating to a neutral rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company. in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on CMS Energy from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $65.00.

CMS Energy Price Performance

Shares of CMS opened at $63.66 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.38. CMS Energy has a twelve month low of $49.87 and a twelve month high of $64.28. The company has a 50 day moving average of $60.68 and a 200-day moving average of $59.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.73 billion. CMS Energy had a return on equity of 12.25% and a net margin of 13.10%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.75 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that CMS Energy will post 3.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CMS Energy Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.51 per share. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 2nd. CMS Energy’s payout ratio is 62.80%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CMS Energy news, SVP Brian F. Rich sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.10, for a total transaction of $122,200.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 97,682 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,968,370.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, SVP Brian F. Rich sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.10, for a total value of $122,200.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 97,682 shares in the company, valued at $5,968,370.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Jon E. Barfield sold 2,360 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.79, for a total value of $143,464.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 14,556 shares in the company, valued at approximately $884,859.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 6,027 shares of company stock worth $365,651 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of CMS Energy by 14.0% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 22,662,964 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,367,483,000 after purchasing an additional 2,786,071 shares during the period. Capital International Investors grew its position in CMS Energy by 24.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 6,208,876 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $360,537,000 after acquiring an additional 1,234,791 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in CMS Energy by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,593,539 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $324,817,000 after acquiring an additional 65,966 shares during the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its position in CMS Energy by 320.9% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 4,305,602 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $250,026,000 after acquiring an additional 3,282,697 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in CMS Energy by 34.3% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,456,713 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $200,731,000 after acquiring an additional 883,180 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.