SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) Announces $0.20 Quarterly Dividend

SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 26th will be paid a dividend of 0.20 per share by the energy company on Friday, January 9th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.3%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 26th.

SM Energy has raised its dividend by an average of 0.5%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 4 consecutive years. SM Energy has a payout ratio of 14.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect SM Energy to earn $7.95 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 10.1%.

SM Energy Stock Performance

SM opened at $18.72 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.56 and a quick ratio of 0.56. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $20.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $24.31. SM Energy has a 1 year low of $17.58 and a 1 year high of $44.95.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The energy company reported $1.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $811.59 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $838.24 million. SM Energy had a net margin of 22.03% and a return on equity of 16.67%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.62 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that SM Energy will post 8.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on SM. Zacks Research upgraded shares of SM Energy from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Mizuho set a $38.00 price target on SM Energy in a research report on Friday, October 10th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on SM Energy from $36.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of SM Energy from $30.00 to $23.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of SM Energy in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, SM Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.91.

SM Energy Company 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.