California Public Employees Retirement System Increases Stake in CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS)

California Public Employees Retirement System grew its holdings in CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS - Free Report) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,374,324 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 24,399 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System owned 0.46% of CMS Energy worth $91,599,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Smith Group Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in CMS Energy during the fourth quarter worth $333,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 39.1% in the fourth quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 20,133 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,342,000 after acquiring an additional 5,662 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 76,560 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $5,103,000 after purchasing an additional 392 shares in the last quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. grew its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 49.9% during 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. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 170,698 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $11,377,000 after acquiring an additional 4,500 shares during the last quarter. 93.57% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on CMS shares. Barclays upgraded shares of CMS Energy from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $68.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of CMS Energy from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of CMS Energy from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on CMS Energy from $73.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, March 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CMS Energy currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $75.36.

Insider Transactions at CMS Energy

In other news, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.77, for a total value of $147,540.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 71,931 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,306,349.87. This represents a 2.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Scott B. Mcintosh sold 6,700 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.76, for a total value of $467,392.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 21,643 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $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 90 days, insiders sold 11,200 shares of company stock worth $789,532. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

CMS Energy Price Performance

CMS stock traded down $2.70 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $72.81. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,394,563 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,237,564. The company has a 50 day moving average of $71.24 and a two-hundred day moving average of $69.43. CMS Energy Co. has a 12 month low of $56.61 and a 12 month high of $76.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.35. 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 - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.01. CMS Energy had a net margin of 13.35% and a return on equity of 12.02%. On average, analysts expect that CMS Energy Co. will post 3.59 EPS for the current year.

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 17th were paid a $0.5425 dividend. This represents a $2.17 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.98%. This is a positive change from CMS Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. CMS Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.36%.

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.