Top 5 Building Product Companies To Watch In Right Now

Top 5 Building Product Companies To Watch In Right Now: CMS Energy Corp (CMS)

CMS Energy Corporation (CMS Energy) is an energy company operating primarily in Michigan. CMS Energy is the parent holding company of several subsidiaries, including Consumers Energy Company (Consumers) and CMS Enterprises Company (CMS Enterprises). Consumers is an electric and gas utility, and CMS Enterprises, primarily a domestic independent power producer. Consumers serves individuals and businesses operating in the alternative energy, automotive, chemical, metal, and food products industries, as well as a diversified group of other industries. CMS Enterprises, through its subsidiaries and equity investments, is engaged primarily in independent power production and owns power generation facilities fueled mostly by natural gas and biomass. CMS Energy operates in three business segments: electric utility, gas utility and enterprises, its non-utility operations and investments. EnerBank USA (EnerBank), a wholly owned subsidiary of CMS Energy, which provides unsecured consu mer installment loans for financing home improvements.

CONSUMERS ELECTRIC UTILITY

Consumers electric utility operations include the generation, purchase, distribution, and sale of electricity. During the year ended December 31, 2011, Consumers electric deliveries were 38 billion kilowatt hour, which included Retail Open Access (ROA) deliveries of four billion kilowatt hour. Consumers distribution system includes 413 miles of high-voltage distribution radial lines operating at 120 kilovolts or above; ,244 miles of high-voltage distribution overhead lines operating at 23 kilovolts and 46 kilovolts; 17 miles of high-voltage distribution underground lines operating at 23 kilovolts and 46 kilovolts; 55,953 miles of electric distribution overhead lines; 10,112 miles of underground distribution lines, and substations with an aggregate transformer capacity of 24 million thousand volt-amperes.

At December 31, 2011,! Consumers electri c generating system consisted of coal generation, oil/gas/steam generation, hydroelectric and gas/oil combustion turbine. At December 31, 2011, Consumers had contracts to purchase coal through 2014. At December 31, 2011, Consumers had 86% of its 2012 expected coal requirements under contract, as well as a 41-day supply of coal on hand. During 2011, Consumers purchased 53% of the electricity it provided to customers through long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs), seasonal purchases, and the Midwest Energy Market. Consumers offers its generation into the Midwest Energy Market on a day-ahead and real-time basis and bids for power in the market to serve the demand of its customers. Consumers is a net purchaser of power and supplements its generation capability with purchases from the Midwest Energy Market to meet its customers needs during peak demand periods.

CONSUMERS GAS UTILITY

Consumers gas utility operations include the purchase, trans mission, storage, distribution, and sale of natural gas. Consumers gas utility customer base consists of a mix of residential, commercial, and diversified industrial customers in Michigans Lower Peninsula. In 2011, deliveries of natural gas, including off-system transportation deliveries, through Consumers pipeline and distribution network, totaled 337 billion cubic feet of gas, which included Gas Customer Choice (GCC) deliveries of 48 billion cubic feet of gas. Consumers gas utility operations are seasonal. During 2011, 46% of the natural gas supplied to all customers during the winter months was supplied from storage.

Consumers gas distribution and transmission system located in Michigans Lower Peninsula consists of 26,623 miles of distribution mains; 666 miles of transmission lines; seven compressor stations with a total of 150,635 installed and available horsepower, and 15 gas storage fields with an aggregate storage capacity of 307 billion cubic feet of gas and a working storage capacity of 142 bil! lion cubi! c feet of gas. In 2011, Consumers purchased 70% of the gas it delivered from United States producers and 10% from Canadian producers. The remaining 20% was purchased from authorized GCC suppliers and delivered by Consumers to customers in the GCC program.

ENTERPRISES SEGMENT

CMS Energys enterprises segment, through various subsidiaries and certain equity investments, is engaged primarily in domestic independent power production and the marketing of independent power production. At December 31, 2011, CMS Energy had ownership interests in independent power plants totaling 1,135 gross megawatts or 1,034 net megawatts. CMS Energy Resource Management (ERM) purchases and sells energy commodities in support of CMS Energys generating facilities and continues to focus on optimizing CMS Energys independent power production portfolio. In 2011, CMS ERM marketed 17 billion cubic feet o f natural gas and 2,417 gigawatt-hour of electricity.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Calling all cash flows
  When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

• [By David Dittman]

  CMS Energy Corp (NYSE: CMS), which at 47.5 percent had the largest share of coal-fired generation among power producers in the UF Portfolio, was down just 0.1 percent.

• [By Alex Planes]

  Looking for a way to invest in hydropower? California's PG&E (NYSE: PCG  ) is the nation's largest hydropower utility, producing nearly 12 billion kilowatt-hours of water-sourced electricity each year. CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS  ) , which currently operates 13 hydroelectric power plants in Michigan -- including one near the site of th! at first ! Grand Rapids turbine -- provides power to about 70,000 people each year from the movement of water.

• [By ovenerio]

  The company has a current ROE of 11.16% which is higher than the industry median. Also, it is higher than the one exhibit by Ameren (AEE). In general, analysts consider ROE ratios in the 15-20% range as representing attractive levels for investment. So, for investors looking at those levels, Wisconsin Energy (WEC) and CMS Energy (CMS) could be the options. It is very important to understand this metric before investing, and it is important to look at the trend in ROE over time.

source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.seekpennystocks.com/top-5-building-product-companies-to-watch-in-right-now.html