Blair William & Co. IL Increases Holdings in SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM)

Blair William & Co. IL grew its holdings in SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) by 13.4% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 12,733 shares of the energy company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,508 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in SM Energy were worth $381,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in SM. New York State Common Retirement Fund purchased a new position in shares of SM Energy in the first quarter valued at about $25,363,000. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of SM Energy by 40.1% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,683,131 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $103,998,000 after acquiring an additional 767,779 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of SM Energy in the fourth quarter valued at about $22,059,000. Palisade Capital Management LP lifted its position in shares of SM Energy by 45.5% in the first quarter. Palisade Capital Management LP now owns 1,226,895 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $36,746,000 after acquiring an additional 383,616 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of SM Energy by 272.7% in the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 433,834 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $12,993,000 after acquiring an additional 317,421 shares in the last quarter. 94.56% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. TD Cowen upgraded SM Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. KeyCorp decreased their target price on SM Energy from $60.00 to $36.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Mizuho boosted their target price on SM Energy from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Raymond James Financial downgraded SM Energy from an “outperform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Stephens decreased their target price on SM Energy from $62.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.50.

SM Energy Trading Down 2.1%

SM opened at $25.69 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.63 and a beta of 2.29. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $26.58 and its 200-day moving average price is $27.85. SM Energy Company has a one year low of $19.67 and a one year high of $47.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.69.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The energy company reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by $0.27. SM Energy had a return on equity of 18.06% and a net margin of 25.94%. The firm had revenue of $792.94 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $792.58 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.85 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 25.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that SM Energy Company will post 8.1 EPS for the current year.

SM Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 4th. Investors of record on Friday, July 18th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 18th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 11.30%.

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.