Public Sector Pension Investment Board Sells 10,300 Shares of SM Energy (NYSE:SM)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board lowered its position in shares of SM Energy (NYSE:SM) by 4.1% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 242,804 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 10,300 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in SM Energy were worth $9,705,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in SM Energy by 6.5% during the second 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. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 2,515.6% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,463,443 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $178,404,000 after purchasing an additional 4,292,793 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 1.2% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,361,149 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $102,072,000 after purchasing an additional 28,005 shares during the period. River Road Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of SM Energy by 0.7% in the third quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,792,573 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $71,649,000 after buying an additional 12,669 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Westwood Holdings Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of SM Energy by 10.2% in the second quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 1,709,927 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $73,920,000 after buying an additional 157,923 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 94.56% of the company’s stock.

SM Energy Price Performance

SM stock opened at $45.19 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $5.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.31 and a beta of 4.18. 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 has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $44.56. SM Energy has a 1 year low of $34.13 and a 1 year high of $53.26.

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

SM Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 25th were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date 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 yield of 1.77%. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 11.17%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on SM shares. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on SM Energy from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 4th. TD Cowen raised SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $64.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $62.00 to $57.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. raised shares of SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of SM Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $51.09.

About SM Energy

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.