Praxis Investment Management Inc. Purchases New Position in SM Energy Company $SM

Praxis Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 8,290 shares of the energy company’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of SM Energy by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,269,443 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $457,320,000 after buying an additional 69,933 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in SM Energy by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,909,004 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $117,075,000 after buying an additional 226,911 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. increased its holdings in SM Energy by 51.4% in the 1st quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 3,207,245 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $96,057,000 after buying an additional 1,088,948 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in SM Energy by 663.7% in the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,884,536 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $56,442,000 after buying an additional 1,637,779 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in SM Energy by 169.4% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,873,860 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $56,122,000 after buying an additional 1,178,397 shares during the period. 94.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on SM shares. Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of SM Energy from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on SM Energy from $30.00 to $23.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of SM Energy in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. TD Cowen upgraded SM Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.50.

SM Energy Trading Down 2.2%

Shares of NYSE:SM opened at $21.30 on Monday. SM Energy Company has a 1 year low of $19.67 and a 1 year high of $46.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 2.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $26.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $25.34.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The energy company reported $1.50 earnings per share (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 quarter last year, the firm posted $1.85 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 25.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that SM Energy Company will post 8.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 17th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 17th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.8%. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.