Intech Investment Management LLC Purchases 73,729 Shares of SM Energy (NYSE:SM)

Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in SM Energy (NYSE:SM) by 344.4% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 95,140 shares of the energy company’s stock after buying an additional 73,729 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in SM Energy were worth $3,803,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of SM Energy by 929.6% in the 2nd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 1,159,488 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $50,125,000 after buying an additional 1,046,872 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of SM Energy by 2,217.1% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 818,032 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $32,697,000 after acquiring an additional 782,728 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in SM Energy by 6.5% in 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 acquiring an additional 384,675 shares during the last quarter. SIR Capital Management L.P. increased its position in SM Energy by 144.7% during the 2nd quarter. SIR Capital Management L.P. now owns 457,854 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $19,793,000 after purchasing an additional 270,754 shares during the period. Finally, Diversify Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in SM Energy by 391.2% during the 2nd quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 310,558 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $13,491,000 after purchasing an additional 247,331 shares during the last quarter. 94.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on SM. TD Cowen raised shares of SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $64.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target 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. Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. raised SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on SM Energy from $43.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $50.00 target price on shares of SM Energy in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, SM Energy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $51.09.

SM Energy Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of SM Energy stock opened at $46.03 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.27 billion, a PE ratio of 6.43 and a beta of 4.18. SM Energy has a 52 week low of $34.13 and a 52 week high of $53.26. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $42.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $44.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 3.52 and a current ratio of 3.52.

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

SM Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 25th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 25th. This is an increase from SM Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.74%. SM Energy’s payout ratio is presently 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.