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

SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $34.00.

Several research analysts have commented on SM shares. Zacks Research downgraded SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Friday, January 16th. Roth Mkm set a $28.00 price target on SM Energy in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of SM Energy in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on shares of SM Energy from $35.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, Mizuho set a $34.00 target price on shares of SM Energy in a research report on Friday, January 9th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SM Energy

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. CSM Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in SM Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $4,134,000. Congress Asset Management Co. raised its position in SM Energy by 19.9% during the 3rd quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 1,212,775 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $30,283,000 after buying an additional 201,704 shares during the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its stake in SM Energy by 33.1% during the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 294,546 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $7,278,000 after acquiring an additional 73,240 shares during the period. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC purchased a new stake in shares of SM Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,709,000. Finally, Creative Planning boosted its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 33.3% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 81,990 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $2,026,000 after acquiring an additional 20,497 shares during the last quarter. 94.56% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

SM Energy Trading Down 0.3%

SM stock opened at $18.75 on Friday. SM Energy has a 12 month low of $17.45 and a 12 month high of $42.54. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $18.86 and its 200 day moving average is $22.95. The company has a market capitalization of $2.15 billion, a PE ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.56 and a quick ratio of 0.56.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last issued its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $811.59 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $838.24 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.62 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that SM Energy will post 8.1 EPS for the current year.

SM Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 9th. Investors of record on Friday, December 26th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 26th. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.