Inspire Investing LLC Buys 613 Shares of SM Energy (NYSE:SM)

Inspire Investing LLC boosted its stake in SM Energy (NYSE:SM) by 7.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 9,082 shares of the energy company’s stock after purchasing an additional 613 shares during the period. Inspire Investing LLC’s holdings in SM Energy were worth $393,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SM. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of SM Energy by 6.5% during the second 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 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,361,149 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $102,072,000 after buying an additional 28,005 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. grew its holdings in SM Energy by 20.0% during the 1st quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 1,552,004 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $77,367,000 after acquiring an additional 258,733 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in SM Energy by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,335,624 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $57,739,000 after acquiring an additional 4,611 shares during the period. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of SM Energy by 929.6% during the second quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 1,159,488 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $50,125,000 after acquiring an additional 1,046,872 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.56% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on SM shares. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on SM Energy from $49.00 to $46.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on SM Energy from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Tudor Pickering upgraded SM Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of SM Energy from $62.00 to $57.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of SM Energy from $50.00 to $48.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, SM Energy currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $53.22.

SM Energy Stock Performance

NYSE:SM opened at $41.53 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.51 and a beta of 4.19. SM Energy has a twelve month low of $34.13 and a twelve month high of $53.26. The company has a fifty day moving average of $43.60 and a 200-day moving average of $46.61. 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 (NYSE:SM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The energy company reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $634.56 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $616.63 million. SM Energy had a net margin of 33.18% and a return on equity of 21.01%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.28 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that SM Energy will post 7.57 EPS for the current year.

SM Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 19th were paid a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 19th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.73%. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.29%.

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.