CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.54

CMS Energy Co. (NYSE:CMS) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, April 14th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 9th will be paid a dividend of 0.5425 per share by the utilities provider on Friday, May 30th. This represents a $2.17 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 9th.

CMS Energy has raised its dividend payment by an average of 5.8% per year over the last three years. CMS Energy has a payout ratio of 56.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect CMS Energy to earn $3.88 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.17 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 55.9%.

CMS Energy Stock Performance

CMS stock opened at $72.75 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $21.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.91, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.34. CMS Energy has a one year low of $56.61 and a one year high of $76.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.79. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $72.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $69.53.

CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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, equities analysts forecast that CMS Energy will post 3.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other CMS Energy news, CAO Scott B. Mcintosh sold 6,700 shares of the firm’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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 21,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,509,815.68. This trade represents a 23.64 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Brandon J. Hofmeister sold 2,000 shares of CMS Energy stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $5,306,349.87. This represents a 2.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 11,200 shares of company stock worth $789,532. 0.49% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. UBS Group raised their price objective on CMS Energy from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays upgraded CMS Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $68.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com raised CMS Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating and set a $69.00 target price on shares of CMS Energy in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on CMS Energy from $80.00 to $77.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, CMS Energy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $75.09.

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.