Principal Financial Group Inc. Buys 17,883 Shares of SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM - Free Report) by 2.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 653,705 shares of the energy company's stock after acquiring an additional 17,883 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.57% of SM Energy worth $19,578,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its stake in SM Energy by 64.5% in the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 4,730 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $183,000 after purchasing an additional 1,854 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 2.5% during the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 21,258 shares of the energy company's stock worth $637,000 after buying an additional 518 shares in the last quarter. Range Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 16.9% during the first quarter. Range Financial Group LLC now owns 25,119 shares of the energy company's stock worth $752,000 after buying an additional 3,624 shares in the last quarter. Intrust Bank NA acquired a new stake in shares of SM Energy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $396,000. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of SM Energy by 80.7% in the first quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 1,520 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 679 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.56% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SM has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Stephens lowered their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $62.00 to $55.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on SM Energy from $46.00 to $42.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Raymond James Financial downgraded SM Energy from an "outperform" rating to an "underperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. KeyCorp decreased their target price on shares of SM Energy from $60.00 to $36.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, TD Cowen raised shares of SM Energy to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, SM Energy has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $42.08.

SM Energy Stock Up 0.8%

NYSE SM traded up $0.23 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $28.61. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,877,804 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,982,328. SM Energy Company has a 52 week low of $19.67 and a 52 week high of $48.49. The company has a market capitalization of $3.27 billion, a PE ratio of 4.01 and a beta of 2.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $25.00 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $30.18.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The energy company reported $1.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.16. SM Energy had a return on equity of 19.90% and a net margin of 27.61%. The business had revenue of $844.54 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $814.62 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.13 EPS. The business's revenue was up 50.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that SM Energy Company will post 8.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 18th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 18th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.80%. SM Energy's dividend payout ratio is currently 11.20%.

SM Energy Company 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.