SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) Given Consensus Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have given a hold recommendation, three have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $35.9091.

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of SM Energy in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. KeyCorp cut their target price on shares of SM Energy from $36.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on SM Energy from $30.00 to $23.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 17th. Mizuho set a $38.00 price target on SM Energy in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded SM Energy from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 3rd.

Institutional Trading of SM Energy

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its stake in SM Energy by 69.5% during the 1st quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,017 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 417 shares during the period. First Horizon Corp acquired a new stake in shares of SM Energy in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 316.7% during the third quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,200 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 912 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of SM Energy during the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its position in shares of SM Energy by 220.6% during the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,430 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 984 shares during the period. 94.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

SM Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SM opened at $18.53 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The company has a market capitalization of $2.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.16. SM Energy has a twelve month low of $17.58 and a twelve month high of $44.95. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $19.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $23.96.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 3rd. The energy company reported $1.33 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.08. SM Energy had a net margin of 22.03% and a return on equity of 16.67%. The firm had revenue of $811.59 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $838.24 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.62 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 26.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that SM Energy will post 8.1 earnings per share for the current year.

SM Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 9th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 26th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 26th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.3%. SM Energy’s payout ratio is 12.62%.

SM Energy Company Profile

SM Energy Company (NYSE: SM) is an independent energy firm engaged in the exploration, development, and production of crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids in the United States. The company focuses on identifying and exploiting unconventional onshore basins, leveraging advanced drilling and completion techniques to optimize resource recovery. SM Energy’s operations are supported by an integrated approach to reservoir management and strategic midstream partnerships, enabling efficient transportation and marketing of hydrocarbons.

The company’s core asset areas include prolific basins such as the Permian, Eagle Ford, and the Rocky Mountain region.