Legal & General Group Plc Purchases Shares of 501,543 SM Energy Company $SM

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in shares of SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 501,543 shares of the energy company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,090,000. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.21% of SM Energy as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in SM Energy during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,025,229,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in SM Energy by 79.5% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,995,353 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $311,678,000 after acquiring an additional 4,426,751 shares in the last quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. acquired a new stake in SM Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $199,602,000. State Street Corp lifted its stake in SM Energy by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,257,360 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $118,267,000 after acquiring an additional 107,295 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in SM Energy by 205.1% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,835,718 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $53,028,000 after acquiring an additional 1,906,255 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.56% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at SM Energy

In other news, EVP James Barker Lebeck sold 17,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.02, for a total transaction of $647,850.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 14,705 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $544,379.10. This represents a 54.34% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.45% of the company’s stock.

SM Energy Stock Down 0.1%

SM opened at $36.59 on Monday. SM Energy Company has a one year low of $17.45 and a one year high of $38.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.20 and a beta of 0.73. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $29.43.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The energy company reported $2.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.96 by $0.23. SM Energy had a net margin of 18.20% and a return on equity of 17.93%. The firm had revenue of $2.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.02 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.50 EPS. SM Energy’s quarterly revenue was up 215.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that SM Energy Company will post 7.45 EPS for the current year.

SM Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 21st. Investors of record on Monday, September 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 17.32%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Stephens decreased their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $61.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of SM Energy in a research note on Monday, August 17th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on SM Energy from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Wall Street Zen cut SM Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday. Finally, Raymond James Financial dropped their price objective on SM Energy from $55.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.93.

SM Energy Company Profile

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.