Royal Bank of Canada Boosts Holdings in SM Energy Company $SM

Royal Bank of Canada raised its position in SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) by 112.1% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 94,115 shares of the energy company’s stock after acquiring an additional 49,740 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada’s holdings in SM Energy were worth $2,935,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp increased its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 96.1% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 114,609 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $2,143,000 after acquiring an additional 56,160 shares in the last quarter. Denali Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of SM Energy by 22.2% in the 4th quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 300,000 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $5,610,000 after purchasing an additional 54,428 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG boosted its stake in SM Energy by 23.0% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 666,070 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $12,456,000 after purchasing an additional 124,448 shares in the last quarter. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. grew its position in SM Energy by 24.3% during the 4th quarter. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. now owns 397,039 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $7,425,000 after purchasing an additional 77,638 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Leeward Investments LLC MA purchased a new stake in SM Energy during the 1st quarter worth approximately $13,299,000. 94.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Zacks Research lowered shares of SM Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 25th. Roth Capital upgraded shares of SM Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Stephens dropped their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $61.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Weiss Ratings raised SM Energy from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded SM Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $47.00 in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.93.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Ramiro G. Peru sold 24,553 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.98, for a total transaction of $834,310.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 65,964 shares in the company, valued at $2,241,456.72. The trade was a 27.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.45% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

SM Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SM opened at $33.70 on Friday. SM Energy Company has a twelve month low of $17.45 and a twelve month high of $35.88. The company’s 50 day moving average is $29.72 and its 200 day moving average is $28.20. The company has a current ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85. The company has a market cap of $8.02 billion, a PE ratio of 6.63 and a beta of 0.73.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The energy company reported $2.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.96 by $0.23. SM Energy had a net margin of 18.20% and a return on equity of 17.93%. The business had revenue of $2.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.50 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 215.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that SM Energy Company will post 7.1 EPS for the current year.

SM Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 17.32%.

About SM Energy

SM Energy Company (NYSE: SM) is an independent energy firm engaged in the exploration, development, and production of crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids in the United States. The company focuses on identifying and exploiting unconventional onshore basins, leveraging advanced drilling and completion techniques to optimize resource recovery. SM Energy’s operations are supported by an integrated approach to reservoir management and strategic midstream partnerships, enabling efficient transportation and marketing of hydrocarbons.

The company’s core asset areas include prolific basins such as the Permian, Eagle Ford, and the Rocky Mountain region.