Cms Energy Corp (CMS) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · Utilities · as of Aug 11, 2026
Cms Energy Corp (CMS)
A forensic read on Cms Energy Corp built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
21.7
P / E (ttm)
11.7%
ROE
$21.7B
Market cap
3.20%
Dividend yield
13.6%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Cms Energy Corp earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.2, placing it in the Grey zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
3.8%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 3.8% in the latest fiscal year and steady — well below its ~6% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
+1.2%/yr
FY2022–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +4% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+1.2%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~1.2% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2022 has been diluted ~4%.
+11.1%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +11.1% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by PP&E up +12% against revenue +14%. The cash-flow cross-check is more mixed: reported earnings ran in line with operating cash by 4% of net operating assets, diverging from the balance-sheet accrual read.
1800% of FCF
FY2012
Shareholder returns.Returned $252M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2012 — 1800% of free cash flow, but 20% of operating cash flow. Returns run ahead of free cash flow because the business is also funding heavy growth capex (usually debt-financed); the payout itself is covered by operating cash — sustainable as long as that spending is genuine expansion, not upkeep.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$8.54B
Revenue Growth YoY+13.6%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)-0.2%
Net Margin12.5%
Return on Equity11.7%
Debt / Equity2.05x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Cms Energy Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?