Brokerages Set SM Energy (NYSE:SM) Price Target at $51.09

Shares of SM Energy (NYSE:SM) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $51.09.

SM has been the topic of several analyst reports. Susquehanna decreased their price target on shares of SM Energy from $48.00 to $46.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $50.00 target price on shares of SM Energy in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. TD Cowen upgraded SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price target for the company from $64.00 to $60.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on SM Energy from $65.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their target price on SM Energy from $46.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 30th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of SM Energy by 2,515.6% during 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 in the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. lifted its position in SM Energy by 929.6% during the 2nd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 1,159,488 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $50,125,000 after acquiring an additional 1,046,872 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in SM Energy by 2,217.1% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 818,032 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $32,697,000 after acquiring an additional 782,728 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in SM Energy by 6.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,341,875 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $274,161,000 after acquiring an additional 384,675 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Townsquare Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of SM Energy by 267.4% during the third quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 391,107 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $15,633,000 after purchasing an additional 284,665 shares during the period. 94.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

SM Energy Price Performance

SM stock opened at $45.19 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $43.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $44.54. The firm has a market cap of $5.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.31 and a beta of 4.18. 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 1 year low of $34.13 and a 1 year high of $53.26.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $643.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $643.67 million. SM Energy had a return on equity of 19.62% and a net margin of 33.89%. The business’s revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.73 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that SM Energy will post 6.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 25th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 25th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.77%. This is a boost from SM Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. SM Energy’s payout ratio is presently 11.17%.

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.