Foundry Partners LLC Sells 3,470 Shares of SM Energy (NYSE:SM)

Foundry Partners LLC reduced its stake in SM Energy (NYSE:SM) by 38.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,580 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 3,470 shares during the quarter. Foundry Partners LLC’s holdings in SM Energy were worth $216,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in SM. CWM LLC increased its stake in SM Energy by 11.3% in the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,683 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $104,000 after buying an additional 272 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its stake in SM Energy by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 20,125 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $779,000 after buying an additional 286 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in SM Energy by 59.7% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 990 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 370 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System increased its stake in SM Energy by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 34,315 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,361,000 after buying an additional 464 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gotham Asset Management LLC increased its stake in SM Energy by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 15,415 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $611,000 after buying an additional 502 shares during the last quarter. 94.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $45.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Raymond James lowered their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $53.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $42.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on shares of SM Energy in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $52.57.

SM Energy Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE SM opened at $49.81 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 1.45. SM Energy has a 52-week low of $25.03 and a 52-week high of $53.26. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $46.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.13. The stock has a market cap of $5.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.25 and a beta of 4.20.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The energy company reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.17. SM Energy had a net margin of 34.45% and a return on equity of 20.74%. The firm had revenue of $608.73 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $611.35 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.29 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that SM Energy will post 6.15 EPS for the current year.

SM Energy Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 18th. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.48%.

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.