Royce & Associates LP Has $8.71 Million Stake in SM Energy (NYSE:SM)

Royce & Associates LP raised its stake in SM Energy (NYSE:SM) by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 217,879 shares of the energy company’s stock after buying an additional 11,153 shares during the quarter. Royce & Associates LP owned 0.19% of SM Energy worth $8,709,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 9.4% during the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 9,434 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $470,000 after buying an additional 813 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. increased its position in shares of SM Energy by 74.6% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 98,591 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $4,915,000 after purchasing an additional 42,122 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 5.4% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 23,365 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,165,000 after acquiring an additional 1,202 shares during the last quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 21.1% during the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 41,507 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $2,069,000 after acquiring an additional 7,220 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp increased its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 33.0% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 25,528 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,291,000 after acquiring an additional 6,327 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. TD Cowen upgraded SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their target price for the company from $64.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on SM Energy from $46.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Mizuho decreased their price target on SM Energy from $62.00 to $57.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Tudor Pickering raised SM Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on SM Energy from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.73.

SM Energy Stock Performance

NYSE:SM opened at $43.33 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.05 and a beta of 4.18. SM Energy has a 1 year low of $34.13 and a 1 year high of $53.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 3.52 and a quick ratio of 3.52. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.19 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $44.81.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The energy company reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $643.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $643.67 million. SM Energy had a return on equity of 19.62% and a net margin of 33.89%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.73 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that SM Energy will post 6.77 earnings per share for the current year.

SM Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Investors of record on Friday, October 25th were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This is a positive change from SM Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 25th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.85%. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 11.17%.

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.