SM Energy (SM) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.20 on May 5th

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 27th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be given a dividend of 0.20 per share by the energy company on Monday, May 5th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th.

SM Energy has increased its dividend payment by an average of 236.2% per year over the last three years. SM Energy has a dividend payout ratio of 11.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect SM Energy to earn $7.95 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 10.1%.

SM Energy Trading Down 2.8 %

SM stock opened at $29.42 on Friday. SM Energy has a 52 week low of $26.66 and a 52 week high of $53.26. The company has a market capitalization of $3.37 billion, a PE ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 4.14. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $34.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $39.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 3.52 and a current ratio of 0.55.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The energy company reported $1.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.00 by ($0.09). The business had revenue of $852.22 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $849.44 million. SM Energy had a return on equity of 19.82% and a net margin of 28.63%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that SM Energy will post 8.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Mizuho cut their target price on SM Energy from $57.00 to $55.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of SM Energy from $45.00 to $33.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of SM Energy from $54.00 to $41.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of SM Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Barton R. Brookman, Jr. purchased 7,000 shares of SM Energy stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $32.36 per share, for a total transaction of $226,520.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 14,666 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $474,591.76. This represents a 91.31 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

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.