CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) Short Interest Down 5.2% in October

CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 9,150,000 shares, a decline of 5.2% from the September 30th total of 9,650,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,030,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.5 days.

CMS Energy Price Performance

NYSE CMS traded down $0.47 on Friday, reaching $69.14. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 718,571 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,246,406. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.18. CMS Energy has a twelve month low of $54.13 and a twelve month high of $72.40. The stock has a market cap of $20.65 billion, a PE ratio of 21.35, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.41. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $69.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $64.54.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. CMS Energy had a net margin of 13.10% and a return on equity of 12.25%. CMS Energy’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.61 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that CMS Energy will post 3.33 EPS for the current year.

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 13th will be issued a $0.515 dividend. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.98%. This is a boost from CMS Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 13th. CMS Energy’s payout ratio is currently 63.19%.

Institutional Trading of CMS Energy

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CMS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 14.0% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 22,662,964 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,367,483,000 after purchasing an additional 2,786,071 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of CMS Energy by 101.7% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,891,027 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $410,223,000 after purchasing an additional 3,473,977 shares in the last quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in CMS Energy by 105.9% in the second quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,555,898 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $92,623,000 after acquiring an additional 800,344 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its position in shares of CMS Energy by 46.2% during the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,332,892 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $79,275,000 after purchasing an additional 421,059 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in CMS Energy by 22.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,281,504 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $76,292,000 after acquiring an additional 233,633 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.57% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of CMS Energy from $66.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Guggenheim lifted their target price 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. KeyCorp lifted their price objective 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. StockNews.com raised shares of CMS Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $70.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, CMS Energy currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.85.

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.