Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Acquires 157,923 Shares of SM Energy (NYSE:SM)

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of SM Energy (NYSE:SM) by 10.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 1,709,927 shares of the energy company’s stock after buying an additional 157,923 shares during the quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. owned approximately 1.49% of SM Energy worth $73,920,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in SM. Register Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in SM Energy in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 509.7% in the 1st quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 567 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 474 shares in the last quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 54.9% during the 1st quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 581 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 206 shares in the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd grew its position in SM Energy by 461.9% during the second quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 590 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 485 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 66.8% in the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 829 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 332 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.56% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on SM. Tudor Pickering raised SM Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. raised shares of SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. 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. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $49.00 to $46.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded SM Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, SM Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $53.22.

SM Energy Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of SM opened at $41.55 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $43.60 and its 200 day moving average is $46.59. SM Energy has a fifty-two week low of $34.13 and a fifty-two week high of $53.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.78 billion, a PE ratio of 6.51 and a beta of 4.19.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The energy company reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $634.56 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $616.63 million. SM Energy had a return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 33.18%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.28 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that SM Energy will post 7.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Dividend Announcement

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

SM Energy Company 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.