Fulton Bank N.A. Grows Position in CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS)

Fulton Bank N.A. raised its stake in CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) by 15.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,362 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 734 shares during the quarter. Fulton Bank N.A.’s holdings in CMS Energy were worth $357,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CMS. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in CMS Energy by 10.4% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,610,120 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $537,503,000 after purchasing an additional 719,093 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in CMS Energy by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,509,770 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $528,713,000 after acquiring an additional 105,062 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in CMS Energy by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,155,842 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $152,267,000 after acquiring an additional 18,403 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in CMS Energy by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,822,389 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $128,715,000 after acquiring an additional 25,196 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 22.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,281,504 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $76,292,000 after purchasing an additional 233,633 shares during the last quarter. 93.57% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on CMS. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on CMS Energy from $77.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com lowered shares of CMS Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 28th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of CMS Energy from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Scotiabank lifted their price target 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on CMS Energy from $69.00 to $67.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.36.

CMS Energy Stock Performance

CMS Energy stock opened at $65.10 on Friday. 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 Co. has a one year low of $55.10 and a one year high of $72.40. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $67.55 and its 200 day moving average price is $66.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.45 billion, a PE ratio of 18.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.42.

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

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.16%. This is a positive change from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 13th. CMS Energy’s payout ratio is presently 58.86%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 2,000 shares of CMS Energy stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.17, for a total value of $136,340.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 64,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,415,439.07. The trade was a 3.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John G. Russell sold 28,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.85, for a total transaction of $1,893,187.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 144,059 shares in the company, valued at $9,486,285.15. This represents a 16.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 33,686 shares of company stock worth $2,228,084. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

CMS Energy 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.