Victory Capital Management Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in SM Energy Company $SM

Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 606,816 shares of the energy company’s stock after acquiring an additional 22,607 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in SM Energy were worth $15,152,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in SM Energy by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,585,624 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $114,503,000 after acquiring an additional 375,754 shares in the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. increased its stake in SM Energy by 16.3% during the 2nd quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 3,731,350 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $92,202,000 after buying an additional 524,105 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake 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 buying an additional 17,930 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in SM Energy by 22.2% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,289,314 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $56,569,000 after buying an additional 415,454 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Congress Asset Management Co. grew its stake in shares of SM Energy by 19.9% in the third 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 hedge funds and other institutional investors.

SM Energy Trading Down 4.3%

SM opened at $24.90 on Wednesday. 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 one year low of $17.45 and a one year high of $32.26. The company has a market cap of $2.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.41 and a beta of 1.03. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $20.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $21.72.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The energy company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $704.92 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $764.40 million. SM Energy had a return on equity of 13.47% and a net margin of 20.55%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.91 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that SM Energy Company will post 8.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. This is a positive change from SM Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.58%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on SM shares. Zacks Research upgraded SM Energy from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 16th. Siebert Williams Shank lowered SM Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Weiss Ratings cut SM Energy from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Mizuho set a $34.00 price objective on SM Energy in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Finally, KeyCorp cut their target price on shares of SM Energy from $36.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $31.22.

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.