Moment Partners LLC Buys New Position in CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS)

Moment Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 4,855 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $324,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CMS. Raymond James Trust N.A. increased its stake in CMS Energy by 43.0% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 6,448 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $455,000 after buying an additional 1,940 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC increased its position in shares of CMS Energy by 35.5% during the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 26,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,876,000 after acquiring an additional 6,959 shares during the period. Summit Trail Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 83.2% in the third quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 6,551 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $463,000 after acquiring an additional 2,976 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in CMS Energy by 9.2% in the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 50,887 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,594,000 after purchasing an additional 4,271 shares during the period. Finally, Private Trust Co. NA grew its stake in CMS Energy by 25.6% during the 3rd quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 982 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.57% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at CMS Energy

In other news, Director Laura Wright sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.84, for a total transaction of $174,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 38,790 shares in the company, valued at $2,709,093.60. This represents a 6.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.77, for a total value of $147,540.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 71,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,306,349.87. This represents a 2.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 11,200 shares of company stock worth $789,532. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CMS has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $69.00 price target on shares of CMS Energy in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of CMS Energy from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays upgraded shares of 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 research note on Thursday, February 20th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of CMS Energy from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective 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. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, CMS Energy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $75.36.

CMS Energy Stock Performance

Shares of CMS stock opened at $73.24 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $70.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $69.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.79. CMS Energy Co. has a 1 year low of $56.61 and a 1 year high of $75.06. The firm has a market cap of $21.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.06, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.35.

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

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 17th were given a dividend of $0.5425 per share. This is an increase from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.17 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.96%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.36%.

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.