Swiss National Bank Decreases Holdings in SM Energy (NYSE:SM)

Swiss National Bank decreased its holdings in SM Energy (NYSE:SM) by 1.4% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 224,700 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 3,100 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in SM Energy were worth $8,981,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Royce & Associates LP increased its stake in SM Energy by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 217,879 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $8,709,000 after purchasing an additional 11,153 shares during the period. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new position in shares of SM Energy in the third quarter worth approximately $458,000. KBC Group NV increased its stake in shares of SM Energy by 16.7% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,321 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $133,000 after buying an additional 476 shares during the period. Plato Investment Management Ltd raised its holdings in SM Energy by 554.7% during the 3rd quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 3,863 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $154,000 after buying an additional 3,273 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in SM Energy by 30.4% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 102,324 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $4,090,000 after buying an additional 23,831 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.56% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on SM. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of SM Energy from $62.00 to $57.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 16th. KeyCorp cut their target price on SM Energy from $65.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of SM Energy in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. raised shares of SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of SM Energy from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $51.09.

SM Energy Stock Up 1.3 %

SM Energy stock opened at $46.03 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $5.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.43 and a beta of 4.18. The company has a current ratio of 3.52, a quick ratio of 3.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. SM Energy has a 12 month low of $34.13 and a 12 month high of $53.26. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $44.63.

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

SM Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Investors of record on Friday, October 25th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This is a boost from SM Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 25th. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 11.17%.

SM Energy 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.