First Eagle Investment Management LLC Raises Holdings in SM Energy (NYSE:SM)

First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of SM Energy (NYSE:SM) by 52.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 147,703 shares of the energy company’s stock after acquiring an additional 50,700 shares during the quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC owned about 0.13% of SM Energy worth $7,363,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 20,125 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $779,000 after buying an additional 286 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC acquired a new position in SM Energy during the fourth quarter valued at $244,000. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC grew its position in SM Energy by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 44,826 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,736,000 after purchasing an additional 3,692 shares during the period. Tributary Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 27.3% in the 4th quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC now owns 574,120 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $22,230,000 after buying an additional 123,126 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in SM Energy by 23.7% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 209,641 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $8,117,000 after buying an additional 40,158 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.56% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at SM Energy

In other news, SVP Kenneth J. Knott sold 16,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.28, for a total value of $804,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 114,495 shares in the company, valued at $5,756,808.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 1.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SM has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on SM Energy from $45.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. KeyCorp upped their target price on SM Energy from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Susquehanna upped their price target on SM Energy from $42.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. StockNews.com cut SM Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $63.00 price objective on shares of SM Energy in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, SM Energy currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.89.

SM Energy Stock Performance

SM traded down $0.76 on Friday, reaching $46.50. The company had a trading volume of 505,945 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,708,724. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.35 billion, a PE ratio of 7.27 and a beta of 4.20. The company has a quick ratio of 1.48, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. SM Energy has a 1 year low of $33.92 and a 1 year high of $53.26. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $47.19 and a 200-day moving average price of $44.99.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The energy company reported $1.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.13. SM Energy had a return on equity of 20.10% and a net margin of 31.80%. The company had revenue of $559.87 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $568.21 million. As a group, research analysts forecast that SM Energy will post 7.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 5th. Investors of record on Friday, July 19th will be given a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 19th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.55%. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 11.29%.

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.