Legal & General Group Plc Sells 30,355 Shares of SM Energy Company $SM

Legal & General Group Plc decreased its stake in shares of SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) by 9.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 283,917 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 30,355 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.25% of SM Energy worth $5,309,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its stake in SM Energy by 62.9% in the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 1,386 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 535 shares during the period. First Horizon Corp increased its stake in SM Energy by 57.4% in the fourth quarter. First Horizon Corp now owns 1,860 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 678 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its stake in SM Energy by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 22,211 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $415,000 after acquiring an additional 687 shares during the period. Hodges Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in SM Energy by 1.0% in the third quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 74,613 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,863,000 after acquiring an additional 705 shares during the period. Finally, US Bancorp DE increased its stake in SM Energy by 1.5% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 48,942 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,222,000 after acquiring an additional 720 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 94.56% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Ramiro G. Peru sold 24,553 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.98, for a total value of $834,310.94. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 65,964 shares in the company, valued at $2,241,456.72. This represents a 27.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.45% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Zacks Research cut shares of SM Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 25th. Raymond James Financial raised shares of SM Energy from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $55.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Roth Mkm reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $33.00 target price (up from $24.00) on shares of SM Energy in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of SM Energy from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Stephens upped their target price on shares of SM Energy from $48.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.07.

SM Energy Price Performance

SM opened at $32.22 on Monday. SM Energy Company has a one year low of $17.45 and a one year high of $35.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.39 and a quick ratio of 0.39. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $30.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $24.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.54 and a beta of 0.72.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The energy company reported $1.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.42. SM Energy had a net margin of 3.45% and a return on equity of 13.93%. The business had revenue of $1.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.42 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.76 earnings per share. SM Energy’s revenue was up 75.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that SM Energy Company will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 8th. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.97%.

About SM Energy

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.