Morgan Stanley Has Lowered Expectations for CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) Stock Price

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) had its price objective trimmed by Morgan Stanley from $69.00 to $67.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on CMS. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on CMS Energy from $70.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on CMS Energy from $66.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on CMS Energy from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Mizuho cut shares of CMS Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $76.00 to $72.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Guggenheim increased their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.21.

CMS Energy Trading Up 0.4 %

CMS stock opened at $69.52 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $20.77 billion, a PE ratio of 19.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 1.23. CMS Energy has a one year low of $55.10 and a one year high of $72.40. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $69.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $65.52.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.06. CMS Energy had a net margin of 14.01% and a return on equity of 12.81%. The business had revenue of $1.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.61 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that CMS Energy will post 3.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.515 per share. This represents a $2.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.96%. This is an increase from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 13th. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 58.86%.

Insider Transactions at CMS Energy

In other news, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.17, for a total transaction of $136,340.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 64,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,415,439.07. This represents a 3.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of CMS Energy by 171.9% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 435 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 275 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in shares of CMS Energy in the third quarter worth $40,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of CMS Energy by 431.3% during the second quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 712 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 578 shares during the last quarter. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in CMS Energy during the second quarter valued at $43,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its stake in CMS Energy by 206.1% in the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 701 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 472 shares in the last quarter. 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.