State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Grows Position in SM Energy (NYSE:SM)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D grew its position in SM Energy (NYSE:SM) by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 42,249 shares of the energy company’s stock after acquiring an additional 752 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in SM Energy were worth $1,689,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. lifted its position in 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 during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in SM Energy by 2,217.1% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 818,032 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $32,697,000 after buying an additional 782,728 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of 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 worth $274,161,000 after acquiring an additional 384,675 shares during the period. SIR Capital Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of SM Energy by 144.7% in the 2nd quarter. SIR Capital Management L.P. now owns 457,854 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $19,793,000 after acquiring an additional 270,754 shares during the period. Finally, Westwood Holdings Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 20.0% in the first quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 1,552,004 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $77,367,000 after acquiring an additional 258,733 shares in the last quarter. 94.56% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on SM shares. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $46.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Stephens upped their price objective on SM Energy from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Tudor Pickering upgraded SM Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of 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. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded shares of SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price target for the company from $64.00 to $60.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $50.73.

SM Energy Stock Up 3.0 %

SM stock opened at $44.63 on Tuesday. 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 company’s 50 day simple moving average is $42.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $44.79. SM Energy has a 12 month low of $34.13 and a 12 month high of $53.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.11 billion, a PE ratio of 6.23 and a beta of 4.18.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last announced its 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 19.62% and a net margin of 33.89%. The firm had revenue of $643.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $643.67 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.73 EPS. SM Energy’s quarterly revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that SM Energy will post 6.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Investors of record on Friday, October 25th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This is an increase 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 1.79%. SM Energy’s payout ratio is presently 11.17%.

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.