Eagle Asset Management Inc. Sells 47,202 Shares of SM Energy (NYSE:SM)

Eagle Asset Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in SM Energy (NYSE:SM) by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 324,126 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 47,202 shares during the quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in SM Energy were worth $14,057,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of SM Energy by 6.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,341,875 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $274,161,000 after buying an additional 384,675 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in SM Energy by 2,515.6% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,463,443 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $178,404,000 after purchasing an additional 4,292,793 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in SM Energy by 1.2% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,361,149 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $102,072,000 after purchasing an additional 28,005 shares during the last quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of SM Energy by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,792,573 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $71,649,000 after purchasing an additional 12,669 shares during the period. Finally, Westwood Holdings Group Inc. increased its position in shares of SM Energy by 10.2% during the 2nd quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 1,709,927 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $73,920,000 after purchasing an additional 157,923 shares during the last quarter. 94.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $46.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 30th. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of SM Energy from $62.00 to $57.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of SM Energy in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. upgraded SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, Stephens upped their price target on SM Energy from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $51.09.

SM Energy Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of SM opened at $46.03 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.27 billion, a PE ratio of 6.43 and a beta of 4.18. The company’s fifty day moving average is $42.77 and its 200 day moving average is $44.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 3.52 and a current ratio of 3.52. SM Energy has a fifty-two week low of $34.13 and a fifty-two week high of $53.26.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The energy company reported $1.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $643.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $643.67 million. SM Energy had a net margin of 33.89% and a return on equity of 19.62%. The business’s revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.73 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that SM Energy will post 6.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 25th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This is a boost from SM Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 25th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.74%. SM Energy’s payout ratio is 11.17%.

SM Energy Profile

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.