GWN Securities Inc. Purchases New Position in CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS)

GWN Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 7,404 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $487,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Smith Group Asset Management LLC bought a new position in CMS Energy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $333,000. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. boosted its stake in CMS Energy by 10.6% during the third quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 11,925 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $842,000 after buying an additional 1,147 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 39.1% in the 4th quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 20,133 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,342,000 after purchasing an additional 5,662 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. lifted its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 49.9% in the 4th quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 26,808 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,787,000 after purchasing an additional 8,927 shares during the last quarter. 93.57% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

CMS Energy Trading Up 1.3 %

CMS opened at $72.83 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $69.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $68.93. The company has a market capitalization of $21.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.94, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.35. CMS Energy Co. has a 52 week low of $56.61 and a 52 week high of $75.06. The company has a quick ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 forecast that CMS Energy Co. will post 3.59 earnings per share for the current year.

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 17th were issued a $0.5425 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.17 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.98%. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 65.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CMS has been the subject of several analyst reports. Scotiabank raised their price objective on CMS Energy from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays raised CMS Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $68.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com raised CMS Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $69.00 price target on shares of CMS Energy in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on 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. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $73.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director John G. Russell sold 28,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 144,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,486,285.15. This trade represents a 16.64 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Scott B. Mcintosh sold 6,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.76, for a total value of $467,392.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 21,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,509,815.68. The trade was a 23.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 39,950 shares of company stock worth $2,682,720. 0.53% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.