Cozad Asset Management Inc. Acquires New Shares in SM Energy Company $SM

Cozad Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 84,447 shares of the energy company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,633,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in SM. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $311,678,000 after acquiring an additional 4,426,751 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in shares of SM Energy by 205.1% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,835,718 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $53,028,000 after purchasing an additional 1,906,255 shares during the period. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. raised its stake in shares of SM Energy by 268.3% during the 4th quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 2,271,757 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $42,482,000 after purchasing an additional 1,654,891 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP lifted its holdings in SM Energy by 198.9% during the 3rd quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 2,429,518 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $60,665,000 after purchasing an additional 1,616,822 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sagefield Capital LP purchased a new stake in SM Energy during the 4th quarter worth about $20,275,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.56% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Truist Financial reduced their target price on SM Energy from $39.00 to $37.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of SM Energy from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Siebert Williams Shank upgraded shares of SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $41.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Raymond James Financial decreased their target price on shares of SM Energy from $55.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $36.53.

Insider Buying and Selling at SM Energy

In related news, Director Ramiro G. Peru sold 24,553 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.98, for a total value of $834,310.94. Following the sale, the director directly owned 65,964 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,241,456.72. This trade represents a 27.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.45% of the company’s stock.

SM Energy Price Performance

SM Energy stock opened at $32.42 on Friday. SM Energy Company has a 52 week low of $17.45 and a 52 week high of $35.88. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $27.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98. The stock has a market cap of $7.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.62 and a beta of 0.73.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last announced 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. SM Energy had a return on equity of 13.93% and a net margin of 3.45%.The business had revenue of $1.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.42 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.76 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 75.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that SM Energy Company will post 6.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, June 8th were given a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 8th. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 36.97%.

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.