Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Takes $1.03 Million Position in SM Energy Company $SM

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 54,982 shares of the energy company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,028,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its position in shares of SM Energy by 62.9% in the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 1,386 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 535 shares in the last quarter. Leonteq Securities AG acquired a new position in SM Energy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $121,000. Covestor Ltd raised its position in SM Energy by 30.4% during the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 7,964 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $149,000 after purchasing an additional 1,858 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its position in SM Energy by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 22,211 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $415,000 after purchasing an additional 687 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dana Investment Advisors Inc. raised its position in SM Energy by 84.2% during the fourth quarter. Dana Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 74,968 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,402,000 after purchasing an additional 34,278 shares in the last quarter. 94.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on SM. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $36.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of SM Energy from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $55.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Roth Mkm restated a “neutral” rating and set a $33.00 price objective (up from $24.00) on shares of SM Energy in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.07.

Insider Buying and Selling at SM Energy

In other SM Energy 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 sale, the director owned 65,964 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,241,456.72. The trade was a 27.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.45% of the company’s stock.

SM Energy Stock Performance

NYSE SM opened at $31.17 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $30.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $23.84. The stock has a market cap of $7.47 billion, a PE ratio of 13.10 and a beta of 0.73. SM Energy Company has a fifty-two week low of $17.45 and a fifty-two week high of $35.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.39.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The energy company reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.42. The firm had revenue of $1.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.42 billion. SM Energy had a net margin of 3.45% and a return on equity of 13.93%. The company’s revenue was up 75.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.76 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that SM Energy Company will post 7.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 22nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. SM Energy’s payout ratio is presently 36.97%.

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.