Royce & Associates LP Has $8.91 Million Stake in SM Energy Company $SM

Royce & Associates LP grew its position in SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) by 22.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 356,608 shares of the energy company’s stock after purchasing an additional 65,732 shares during the quarter. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in SM Energy were worth $8,905,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in SM Energy by 8.9% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,585,624 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $114,503,000 after buying an additional 375,754 shares during the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. boosted its position in SM Energy by 16.3% during the second quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 3,731,350 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $92,202,000 after acquiring an additional 524,105 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in SM Energy by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,710,106 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $66,979,000 after acquiring an additional 17,930 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of SM Energy by 22.2% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,289,314 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $56,569,000 after acquiring an additional 415,454 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Congress Asset Management Co. raised its position in shares of SM Energy by 19.9% in the 3rd quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 1,212,775 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $30,283,000 after acquiring an additional 201,704 shares in the last quarter. 94.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings lowered SM Energy from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Monday. Siebert Williams Shank lowered SM Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Mizuho set a $34.00 price target on SM Energy in a report on Friday, January 9th. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $36.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. Finally, Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $24.00 target price on shares of SM Energy in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $32.20.

SM Energy Stock Down 0.4%

SM stock opened at $24.09 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $20.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $21.74. The company has a market cap of $2.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.69. SM Energy Company has a fifty-two week low of $17.45 and a fifty-two week high of $32.26.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The energy company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $705.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $764.40 million. SM Energy had a return on equity of 13.47% and a net margin of 20.55%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.91 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that SM Energy Company will post 8.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is a boost from SM Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.7%. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 14.16%.

SM Energy Profile

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.