Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Acquires New Position in CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS)

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 14,846 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $989,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. BankPlus Trust Department purchased a new stake in CMS Energy during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. increased its position in CMS Energy by 106.8% during the fourth quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 455 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 235 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 171.9% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 435 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 275 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new stake in shares of CMS Energy in the 3rd quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of CMS Energy by 2,900.0% during the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 720 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 696 shares during the period. 93.57% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at CMS Energy

In other CMS Energy news, Director Laura Wright sold 2,500 shares of CMS Energy stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.84, for a total value of $174,600.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 38,790 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,709,093.60. The trade was a 6.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Scott B. Mcintosh sold 6,700 shares of the 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 21,643 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,509,815.68. This represents a 23.64 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 11,200 shares of company stock valued at $789,532. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CMS. 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. Barclays upgraded CMS Energy from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $68.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com upgraded CMS Energy from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group increased their target price on CMS Energy from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of CMS Energy from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $75.36.

CMS Energy Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE CMS traded down $0.34 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $73.17. 3,677,849 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,141,322. The company has a market cap of $21.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.35. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $69.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $69.12. 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 Co. has a one year low of $56.61 and a one year high of $75.06.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.01. CMS Energy had a return on equity of 12.02% and a net margin of 13.35%. On average, analysts predict that CMS Energy Co. will post 3.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CMS Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 17th were issued a $0.5425 dividend. The ex-dividend date 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 yield of 2.97%. CMS Energy's payout ratio is currently 65.36%.

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.