Stephens Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for SM Energy (NYSE:SM) Stock

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) had its price objective lifted by Stephens from $56.00 to $57.00 in a research report released on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the energy company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho decreased their target price on SM Energy from $62.00 to $57.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 16th. KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of SM Energy from $65.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $46.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $50.00 target price on shares of SM Energy in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Tudor Pickering raised SM Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, SM Energy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $51.18.

SM Energy Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of SM Energy stock opened at $40.94 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. SM Energy has a 52-week low of $34.13 and a 52-week high of $53.26. The company has a market capitalization of $4.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.73 and a beta of 4.18. The company has a 50 day moving average of $42.43 and a 200 day moving average of $45.24.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The energy company reported $1.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $643.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $643.67 million. SM Energy had a return on equity of 20.07% and a net margin of 33.89%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.73 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that SM Energy will post 7.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 25th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This is an increase from SM Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 25th. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 11.17%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SM. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in SM Energy by 6.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,341,875 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $274,161,000 after purchasing an additional 384,675 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in SM Energy by 1.2% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,361,149 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $102,072,000 after acquiring an additional 28,005 shares during the last quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC boosted its position in SM Energy by 0.7% during the third quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,792,573 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $71,649,000 after acquiring an additional 12,669 shares during the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. raised its holdings in SM Energy by 10.2% in the 2nd quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 1,709,927 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $73,920,000 after acquiring an additional 157,923 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of SM Energy by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,335,624 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $57,739,000 after purchasing an additional 4,611 shares during the period. 94.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.