CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) Lifted to “Buy” at Bank of America

Bank of America upgraded shares of CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS – Get Rating) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has $66.00 price objective on the utilities provider’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $68.00.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Credit Suisse Group raised CMS Energy from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $61.00 to $64.00 in a report on Monday, November 21st. StockNews.com cut CMS Energy from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report on Tuesday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on CMS Energy from $70.00 to $69.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on CMS Energy from $74.00 to $73.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a sector perform rating and issued a $71.00 price target on shares of CMS Energy in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $67.20.

CMS Energy Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE CMS opened at $59.76 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $62.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.77. The company has a market cap of $17.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.34. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.79. CMS Energy has a 12-month low of $52.41 and a 12-month high of $73.76.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The utilities provider reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.60. The business had revenue of $2.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.05 billion. CMS Energy had a net margin of 9.74% and a return on equity of 11.57%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.47 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that CMS Energy will post 3.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 13th were given a dividend of $0.4875 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 10th. This represents a $1.95 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.26%. This is an increase from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 68.42%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CMS Energy news, SVP Shaun M. Johnson sold 814 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.74, for a total transaction of $50,256.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 57,304 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,537,948.96. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CMS Energy

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CMS. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,060,269 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,158,389,000 after buying an additional 412,183 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 27,198,488 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,584,040,000 after buying an additional 524,947 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 18,885,448 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,196,015,000 after buying an additional 922,417 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,855,679 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $981,675,000 after buying an additional 82,250 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,161,072 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $389,506,000 after buying an additional 101,278 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.16% of the company’s stock.

About CMS Energy

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CMS Energy Corp. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of electric and natural gas activities. It operates through the following business segments: Electric Utility, Gas Utility, and Enterprises. The Electric Utility segment consists of regulated activities associated with the generation, purchase, distribution, and sale of electricity in Michigan.