Principal Financial Group Inc. Has $34.33 Million Stock Position in SM Energy Company $SM

Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) by 101.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,101,082 shares of the energy company’s stock after purchasing an additional 555,128 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in SM Energy were worth $34,332,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of SM. Summit Global Investments lifted its stake in SM Energy by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 46,417 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $868,000 after buying an additional 489 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming increased its position in shares of SM Energy by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 2,748 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 499 shares in the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its position in shares of SM Energy by 62.9% in the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 1,386 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 535 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Corp raised its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 57.4% during 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. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 3.2% during 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.56% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on SM. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $39.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on SM Energy from $26.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 2nd. Siebert Williams Shank upgraded SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $30.00 to $41.00 in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price target on SM Energy from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, SM Energy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $36.93.

SM Energy Stock Performance

Shares of SM opened at $31.37 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $30.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $26.36. SM Energy Company has a 52 week low of $17.45 and a 52 week high of $35.88. The company has a market capitalization of $7.52 billion, a PE ratio of 13.18 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.39.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The energy company reported $1.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.42. The company had revenue of $1.48 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.42 billion. SM Energy had a net margin of 3.45% and a return on equity of 13.93%. The company’s revenue was up 75.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.76 EPS. Research analysts expect that SM Energy Company will post 7.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 22nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 8th were paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 36.97%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Ramiro G. Peru sold 24,553 shares of SM Energy stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.98, for a total transaction of $834,310.94. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 65,964 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,241,456.72. This trade represents a 27.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.45% of the company’s stock.

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.