SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) Given Consensus Recommendation of "Hold" by Analysts

Key Points

• SM Energy Company received a consensus rating of "Hold" from twelve analysts, with price targets averaging $38.10, while opinions vary from sell to strong buy recommendations.
• The company recently reported $1.50 earnings per share for the latest quarter, surpassing analysts' expectations, and showed a 25% year-over-year revenue increase.
• SM Energy declared a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share, which will be paid on November 3rd, reflecting a 3.5% dividend yield.

SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the twelve ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation, three have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $38.10.

A number of equities analysts have commented on SM shares. TD Cowen upgraded SM Energy to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, July 7th. Mizuho set a $38.00 price target on SM Energy in a research report on Friday. Zacks Research downgraded SM Energy from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Raymond James Financial lowered SM Energy from an "outperform" rating to an "underperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 23rd.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SM Energy

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 0.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,269,443 shares of the energy company's stock worth $457,320,000 after purchasing an additional 69,933 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of SM Energy by 7.7% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,209,870 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $104,026,000 after purchasing an additional 300,866 shares during the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. increased its position in SM Energy by 16.3% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in SM Energy by 0.7% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of SM Energy by 22.2% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,289,314 shares of the energy company's stock worth $56,569,000 after acquiring an additional 415,454 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.56% of the company's stock.

SM Energy Stock Performance

SM opened at $22.57 on Wednesday. SM Energy has a 12-month low of $19.67 and a 12-month high of $46.42. The stock has a market cap of $2.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 2.30. The business has a 50 day moving average of $26.44 and a 200-day moving average of $25.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

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

SM Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 17th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 17th. SM Energy's payout ratio is 11.30%.

About SM Energy

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.

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