Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. reduced its stake in shares of CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) by 5.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 323,153 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 19,735 shares during the quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. owned approximately 0.11% of CMS Energy worth $18,765,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CMS. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of CMS Energy by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,663,108 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $247,658,000 after buying an additional 317,682 shares during the period. abrdn plc grew its position in shares of CMS Energy by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 3,144,280 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $166,993,000 after buying an additional 58,405 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its position in shares of CMS Energy by 23.0% in the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 3,054,137 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $162,205,000 after buying an additional 570,800 shares during the period. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of CMS Energy by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 1,847,108 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $98,100,000 after buying an additional 106,172 shares during the period. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System grew its position in shares of CMS Energy by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,833,803 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $97,393,000 after buying an additional 27,644 shares during the period. 93.57% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 3,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.78, for a total value of $202,230.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 68,971 shares in the company, valued at $3,985,144.38. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CMS. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of CMS Energy from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $62.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $67.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of CMS Energy from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of CMS Energy from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of CMS Energy from $58.00 to $57.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $63.33.

CMS Energy Price Performance

CMS traded down $1.13 during trading on Friday, reaching $59.35. 2,386,366 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,514,217. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.98. CMS Energy Co. has a 12-month low of $49.87 and a 12-month high of $63.76. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $58.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.42. The company has a market cap of $17.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.72, a PEG ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.38.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $2.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.32 billion. CMS Energy had a net margin of 11.89% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The company’s revenue was down 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.70 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that CMS Energy Co. will post 3.33 EPS for the current year.

CMS Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.515 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 14th. This represents a $2.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.47%. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 68.44%.

About CMS Energy

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.