Brandon J. Hofmeister Sells 2,000 Shares of CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) Stock

CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.17, for a total transaction of $136,340.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 64,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,415,439.07. The trade was a 3.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

CMS Energy Price Performance

CMS Energy stock opened at $68.52 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $69.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $65.40. The stock has a market cap of $20.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.41. CMS Energy Co. has a 12-month low of $55.10 and a 12-month high of $72.40.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. CMS Energy had a return on equity of 12.81% and a net margin of 14.01%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.61 EPS. Equities analysts expect that CMS Energy Co. will post 3.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.515 per share. This is a positive change from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 13th. This represents a $2.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.01%. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 58.86%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of CMS Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Mizuho lowered shares of CMS Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $76.00 to $72.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on CMS Energy from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Evercore ISI raised CMS Energy to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Guggenheim lifted their target price on CMS Energy from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.29.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 0.6% during the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 25,390 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,511,000 after buying an additional 157 shares during the last quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. raised its position in CMS Energy by 25.7% during the 3rd quarter. Voisard Asset Management Group Inc. now owns 798 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 163 shares during the last quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,625 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $256,000 after acquiring an additional 187 shares during the period. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 1.3% in the third quarter. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC now owns 15,675 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,107,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Private Trust Co. NA increased its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 25.6% during the third quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 982 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.57% of the company’s stock.

CMS Energy Company Profile

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.