Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Takes $714,000 Position in CMS Energy Corporation (NYSE:CMS)

Key Points

• Banque Cantonale Vaudoise has acquired 9,516 shares of CMS Energy Corporation, valued at approximately $714,000, marking a new position for the institutional investor during the first quarter.
• CMS Energy reported a quarterly EPS of $0.71, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67, with a revenue of $1.84 billion for the quarter, reflecting a 14.4% year-over-year increase.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.5425 per share, which will be paid on August 29th, representing an annualized yield of 2.9%.

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise bought a new stake in shares of CMS Energy Corporation (NYSE:CMS - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 9,516 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $714,000.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of CMS Energy by 32.4% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,256,949 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $950,227,000 after buying an additional 3,486,074 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of CMS Energy by 28.0% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 9,741,389 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $649,264,000 after acquiring an additional 2,131,269 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in CMS Energy by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,608,680 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $505,869,000 after purchasing an additional 98,910 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in CMS Energy by 11.6% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,986,489 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $199,049,000 after purchasing an additional 311,489 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 21.7% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,624,075 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $174,895,000 after purchasing an additional 468,233 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.57% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded CMS Energy from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 26th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on CMS Energy from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Barclays boosted their price objective on CMS Energy from $77.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on CMS Energy from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Scotiabank reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $81.00 price objective (up from $77.00) on shares of CMS Energy in a research report on Friday, April 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $77.25.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CMS Energy news, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 2,198 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.61, for a total transaction of $161,794.78. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 69,571 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,121,121.31. This represents a 3.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

CMS Energy Price Performance

CMS traded up $0.30 during trading on Friday, reaching $74.10. The stock had a trading volume of 2,926,292 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,007,880. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06. CMS Energy Corporation has a 1-year low of $63.97 and a 1-year high of $76.45. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $70.47 and a two-hundred day moving average of $70.93.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. CMS Energy had a return on equity of 12.07% and a net margin of 12.76%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that CMS Energy Corporation will post 3.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CMS Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 8th will be given a dividend of $0.5425 per share. This represents a $2.17 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 8th. CMS Energy's dividend payout ratio is presently 64.20%.

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.