ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Makes New Investment in SM Energy Company $SM

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new stake in shares of SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 9,184 shares of the energy company’s stock, valued at approximately $227,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of SM. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of SM Energy by 2,488.2% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 140,436 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $4,206,000 after buying an additional 135,010 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its holdings in SM Energy by 200.8% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,119 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 747 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers raised its position in shares of SM Energy by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 402,867 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $12,066,000 after acquiring an additional 9,003 shares during the last quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of SM Energy in the 1st quarter valued at $164,000. Finally, Congress Asset Management Co. boosted its position in shares of SM Energy by 15.8% in the 1st quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 1,259,627 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $37,726,000 after purchasing an additional 172,161 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on SM shares. TD Cowen upgraded SM Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 7th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of SM Energy in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Susquehanna upped their price target on SM Energy from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Raymond James Financial lowered shares of SM Energy from an “outperform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $44.00 to $39.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, SM Energy has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $41.55.

SM Energy Stock Performance

Shares of SM stock opened at $25.92 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.69. SM Energy Company has a 52 week low of $19.67 and a 52 week high of $46.42. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $26.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $25.83. The company has a market capitalization of $2.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 2.30.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The energy company reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.23 by $0.27. SM Energy had a net margin of 25.94% and a return on equity of 18.06%. The company had revenue of $792.94 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $792.58 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.85 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 25.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that SM Energy Company will post 8.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 17th. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 11.30%.

About SM Energy

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.