CMS vs. AEP, EVRG, LNT, AEE, DTE, DUK, ED, OGE, SO, and WEC
Should you be buying CMS Energy stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of CMS Energy include American Electric Power (AEP), Evergy (EVRG), Alliant Energy (LNT), Ameren (AEE), DTE Energy (DTE), Duke Energy (DUK), Consolidated Edison (ED), OGE Energy (OGE), Southern (SO), and WEC Energy Group (WEC). These companies are all part of the "util - elec pwr" industry.
CMS Energy vs. Its Competitors
American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) and CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, media sentiment, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk and dividends.
American Electric Power presently has a consensus price target of $111.29, suggesting a potential upside of 0.24%. CMS Energy has a consensus price target of $77.25, suggesting a potential upside of 7.97%. Given CMS Energy's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe CMS Energy is more favorable than American Electric Power.
In the previous week, American Electric Power had 8 more articles in the media than CMS Energy. MarketBeat recorded 20 mentions for American Electric Power and 12 mentions for CMS Energy. CMS Energy's average media sentiment score of 1.71 beat American Electric Power's score of 1.52 indicating that CMS Energy is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
American Electric Power pays an annual dividend of $3.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. CMS Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.17 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. American Electric Power pays out 54.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. CMS Energy pays out 64.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. American Electric Power has raised its dividend for 15 consecutive years and CMS Energy has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years. American Electric Power is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
American Electric Power has higher revenue and earnings than CMS Energy. American Electric Power is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CMS Energy, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
American Electric Power has a beta of 0.46, suggesting that its share price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CMS Energy has a beta of 0.39, suggesting that its share price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500.
American Electric Power has a net margin of 17.68% compared to CMS Energy's net margin of 12.76%. CMS Energy's return on equity of 12.07% beat American Electric Power's return on equity.
75.2% of American Electric Power shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.6% of CMS Energy shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of American Electric Power shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of CMS Energy shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Summary
American Electric Power beats CMS Energy on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding CMS and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartMedia Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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This page (NYSE:CMS) was last updated on 9/1/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff