Brokerages Set SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) Target Price at $36.93

SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, ten have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $37.9333.

Several research analysts have weighed in on SM shares. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded SM Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $32.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Thursday. Stephens reduced their target price on shares of SM Energy from $61.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Mizuho upgraded shares of SM Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Roth Capital upgraded shares of SM Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $30.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of SM Energy from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Ramiro G. Peru sold 24,553 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.98, for a total transaction of $834,310.94. Following the transaction, the director directly 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.45% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SM Energy

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in SM Energy during the 2nd quarter worth $1,025,229,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new position in SM Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at $378,288,000. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. bought a new stake in shares of SM Energy during the 2nd quarter valued at $199,602,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of SM Energy by 79.5% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,995,353 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $311,678,000 after acquiring an additional 4,426,751 shares during the period. Finally, Webs Creek Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of SM Energy during the 2nd quarter worth $53,257,807,000. 94.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

SM Energy Price Performance

SM Energy stock opened at $33.70 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.63 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85. SM Energy has a 12 month low of $17.45 and a 12 month high of $35.88. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $29.72 and its 200-day moving average is $28.20.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The energy company reported $2.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.96 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $2.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.02 billion. SM Energy had a return on equity of 17.93% and a net margin of 18.20%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 215.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.50 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that SM Energy will post 7.1 EPS for the current year.

SM Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 22nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 8th. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 17.32%.

About SM Energy

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.