Blue Trust Inc. Boosts Holdings in SM Energy (NYSE:SM)

Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in SM Energy (NYSE:SM) by 3,434.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,025 shares of the energy company’s stock after purchasing an additional 996 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in SM Energy were worth $44,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 6.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,341,875 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $274,161,000 after acquiring an additional 384,675 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 28,005 shares in the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 10.2% during the 2nd quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 1,709,927 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $73,920,000 after acquiring an additional 157,923 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 4,611 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 929.6% during the 2nd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 1,159,488 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $50,125,000 after acquiring an additional 1,046,872 shares in the last quarter. 94.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com lowered SM Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on SM Energy from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on SM Energy from $46.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Mizuho cut their price objective on SM Energy from $62.00 to $57.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, KeyCorp cut their price objective on SM Energy from $65.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, SM Energy has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $51.18.

SM Energy Trading Down 4.0 %

Shares of NYSE SM opened at $40.28 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.63 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 business has a fifty day moving average price of $42.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $45.30.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The energy company reported $1.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.10. SM Energy had a return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 33.18%. The company had revenue of $643.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $643.67 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.73 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that SM Energy will post 7.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 25th will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 25th. This is a boost from SM Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.99%. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.