California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 20,767 Shares of CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS)

California Public Employees Retirement System reduced its stake in CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,813,036 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 20,767 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in CMS Energy were worth $105,283,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. CI Investments Inc. increased its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. CI Investments Inc. now owns 6,415 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $341,000 after buying an additional 185 shares during the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,187 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $435,000 after buying an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. Centerpoint Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 25.0% in the 3rd quarter. Centerpoint Advisors LLC now owns 1,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $53,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc increased its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 37,933 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,015,000 after buying an additional 227 shares during the last quarter. Finally, IFM Investors Pty Ltd increased its holdings in shares of CMS Energy by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 97,475 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,660,000 after buying an additional 269 shares during the last quarter. 93.57% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

CMS Energy Price Performance

CMS Energy stock opened at $59.90 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $17.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.66. CMS Energy Co. has a 1 year low of $49.87 and a 1 year high of $63.76. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $58.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $57.34.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The utilities provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.01. CMS Energy had a net margin of 11.89% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The firm had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.60 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that CMS Energy Co. will post 3.33 earnings per share for the current year.

CMS Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be paid 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 3.44%. CMS Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.44%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.78, for a total transaction of $202,230.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 68,971 shares in the company, valued at $3,985,144.38. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.53% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of CMS Energy from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. UBS Group downgraded shares of CMS Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of CMS Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Guggenheim upgraded shares of CMS Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $60.00 to $64.00 in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, 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 report on Tuesday, January 16th. One equities 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $63.00.

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.