SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) have received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation, three have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $37.50.

A number of brokerages have recently commented on SM. Zacks Research lowered SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Susquehanna cut their price target on SM Energy to $27.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. TD Cowen raised SM Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 7th. Raymond James Financial lowered SM Energy from an “outperform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of SM Energy in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th.

Institutional Trading of SM Energy

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its holdings in SM Energy by 69.5% in the first quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,017 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 417 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group lifted its stake in SM Energy by 1,097.9% in the first quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 1,138 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 1,043 shares during the period. Flaharty Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in SM Energy in the first quarter valued at approximately $45,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its stake in SM Energy by 332.8% in the second quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,887 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 1,451 shares during the period. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd lifted its stake in SM Energy by 73.1% in the first quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 1,899 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 802 shares during the period. 94.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

SM Energy Stock Performance

SM Energy stock opened at $20.62 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $25.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $25.30. SM Energy has a 12-month low of $19.67 and a 12-month high of $46.42. The stock has a market cap of $2.37 billion, a PE ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 2.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The energy company reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by $0.27. SM Energy had a return on equity of 18.06% and a net margin of 25.94%.The firm had revenue of $792.94 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $792.58 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.85 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that SM Energy will post 8.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 17th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 17th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 11.30%.

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.