Insider Selling: CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) Director Sells $1,893,187.50 in Stock

CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) Director John G. Russell sold 28,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.85, for a total value of $1,893,187.50. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 144,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,486,285.15. This represents a 16.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

CMS Energy Trading Up 1.3 %

NYSE CMS opened at $66.61 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $19.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.03, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.41. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $68.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $66.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. CMS Energy Co. has a 52 week low of $55.10 and a 52 week high of $72.40.

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

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 13th were given a dividend of $0.515 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 13th. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.09%. This is an increase from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 58.86%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on CMS Energy from $77.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of CMS Energy from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on CMS Energy from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of CMS Energy from $69.00 to $67.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of CMS Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.36.

Institutional Trading of CMS Energy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of CMS Energy by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 408,331 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $28,840,000 after purchasing an additional 28,695 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC increased its holdings in CMS Energy by 17.6% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 19,780 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,397,000 after buying an additional 2,965 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in CMS Energy in the third quarter valued at about $589,000. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in CMS Energy during the third quarter valued at approximately $248,000. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in CMS Energy by 34.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 34,904 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,427,000 after buying an additional 8,975 shares during the last quarter. 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.