First Trust Advisors LP Trims Stake in SM Energy Company $SM

First Trust Advisors LP cut its stake in SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) by 18.9% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,311,420 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 306,074 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in SM Energy were worth $32,405,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of SM Energy by 663.7% in the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,884,536 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $56,442,000 after purchasing an additional 1,637,779 shares during the period. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of SM Energy during the 1st quarter worth about $44,005,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of SM Energy by 169.4% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,873,860 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $56,122,000 after acquiring an additional 1,178,397 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in shares of SM Energy by 182.4% during the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,082,414 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $26,746,000 after acquiring an additional 699,115 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of SM Energy in the 1st quarter valued at about $18,910,000. 94.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on SM. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on SM Energy from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Mizuho set a $38.00 price target on shares of SM Energy in a research note on Friday, October 10th. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $36.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of SM Energy from $30.00 to $23.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Finally, Susquehanna cut their target price on shares of SM Energy to $27.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.91.

SM Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SM opened at $20.47 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $20.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $24.43. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.16. SM Energy Company has a 52 week low of $17.58 and a 52 week high of $44.95.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 3rd. The energy company reported $1.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $811.59 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $838.24 million. SM Energy had a net margin of 22.03% and a return on equity of 16.67%. SM Energy’s revenue was up 26.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.62 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that SM Energy Company will post 8.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 17th were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 17th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 12.62%.

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.