Brokerages Set SM Energy (NYSE:SM) PT at $51.09

Shares of SM Energy (NYSE:SM) have been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the fourteen brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $51.09.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on SM. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $65.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of SM Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Stephens upped their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, TD Cowen raised shares of SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $64.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th.

SM Energy Stock Down 1.1 %

SM stock opened at $44.63 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.23 and a beta of 4.18. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $44.59. The company has a quick ratio of 3.52, a current ratio of 3.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. SM Energy has a 52 week low of $34.13 and a 52 week high of $53.26.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The energy company reported $1.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.10. SM Energy had a net margin of 33.89% and a return on equity of 19.62%. The company had revenue of $643.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $643.67 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.73 EPS. SM Energy’s revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that SM Energy will post 6.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 25th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This is a positive change from SM Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 25th. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.17%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SM Energy

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in SM. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in SM Energy by 2,515.6% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,463,443 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $178,404,000 after buying an additional 4,292,793 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in SM Energy by 929.6% during the 2nd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 1,159,488 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $50,125,000 after buying an additional 1,046,872 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in SM Energy by 2,217.1% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 818,032 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $32,697,000 after buying an additional 782,728 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in SM Energy by 6.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,341,875 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $274,161,000 after buying an additional 384,675 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Townsquare Capital LLC lifted its holdings in SM Energy by 267.4% during the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 391,107 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $15,633,000 after buying an additional 284,665 shares in the last quarter. 94.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

SM Energy Company Profile

SM Energy Company, an independent energy company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of oil, gas, and natural gas liquids in the state of Texas. It has working interests in oil and gas producing wells in the Midland Basin and South Texas. The company was formerly known as St.