Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Lowers Stock Holdings in SM Energy Company $SM

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC reduced its position in SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) by 15.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 530,025 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 93,592 shares during the quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC owned 0.46% of SM Energy worth $13,235,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of SM. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in SM Energy by 7.7% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,209,870 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $104,026,000 after buying an additional 300,866 shares in the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 16.3% in the 2nd quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 3,731,350 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $92,202,000 after acquiring an additional 524,105 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of SM Energy by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,710,106 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $66,979,000 after purchasing an additional 17,930 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 22.2% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,289,314 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $56,569,000 after purchasing an additional 415,454 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 663.7% during the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,884,536 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $56,442,000 after purchasing an additional 1,637,779 shares during the last quarter. 94.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on SM shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of SM Energy in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Mizuho set a $38.00 price objective on SM Energy in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on SM Energy to $27.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 20th. KeyCorp decreased their target price on shares of SM Energy from $36.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 10th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of SM Energy from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.91.

SM Energy Trading Down 0.2%

NYSE SM opened at $18.68 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a current ratio of 0.56. SM Energy Company has a fifty-two week low of $17.58 and a fifty-two week high of $44.95. The stock has a market cap of $2.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.16. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $19.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $24.20.

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

SM Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 9th. Investors of record on Friday, December 26th will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 26th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.3%. SM Energy’s payout ratio is currently 12.62%.

SM Energy 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.