Voya Investment Management LLC Buys 23,386 Shares of SM Energy Company $SM

Key Points

• Voya Investment Management LLC increased its stake in SM Energy by 31.4%, acquiring an additional 23,386 shares during the first quarter, bringing its total holdings to 97,851 shares valued at approximately $2.93 million.
• The energy company reported $1.50 earnings per share for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations, with revenue up by 25% year-over-year.
• SM Energy also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend of $0.80 and a yield of 3.1%.

Voya Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM - Free Report) by 31.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 97,851 shares of the energy company's stock after acquiring an additional 23,386 shares during the quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC owned about 0.09% of SM Energy worth $2,931,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in shares of SM Energy by 12.7% during the 1st quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 8,355 shares of the energy company's stock worth $250,000 after acquiring an additional 941 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its stake in shares of SM Energy by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 21,258 shares of the energy company's stock worth $637,000 after acquiring an additional 518 shares in the last quarter. Range Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of SM Energy by 16.9% during the 1st quarter. Range Financial Group LLC now owns 25,119 shares of the energy company's stock worth $752,000 after acquiring an additional 3,624 shares in the last quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of SM Energy during the 1st quarter worth about $656,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of SM Energy by 169.4% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,873,860 shares of the energy company's stock worth $56,122,000 after acquiring an additional 1,178,397 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.56% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SM has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial downgraded SM Energy from an "outperform" rating to an "underperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on SM Energy from $33.00 to $29.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Mizuho cut their price objective on SM Energy from $44.00 to $39.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 15th. TD Cowen raised SM Energy to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their price objective on SM Energy from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, SM Energy currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $42.08.

SM Energy Price Performance

NYSE SM traded up $1.25 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $27.10. 993,079 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,220,781. The stock has a market cap of $3.12 billion, a PE ratio of 3.83 and a beta of 2.47. SM Energy Company has a one year low of $19.67 and a one year high of $46.42. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $27.03 and a 200-day moving average of $26.02. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The energy company reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.23 by $0.27. The business had revenue of $792.94 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $792.58 million. SM Energy had a return on equity of 18.06% and a net margin of 25.94%.SM Energy's revenue for the quarter was up 25.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.85 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that SM Energy Company will post 8.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 18th were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 18th. SM Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.30%.

SM Energy 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.