The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Buys Shares of 124,575 SM Energy Company $SM

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new position in SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 124,575 shares of the energy company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,251,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of SM. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of SM Energy during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,025,229,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in SM Energy by 79.5% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,995,353 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $311,678,000 after purchasing an additional 4,426,751 shares in the last quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. acquired a new stake in SM Energy during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $199,602,000. State Street Corp raised its holdings in SM Energy by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,257,360 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $118,267,000 after buying an additional 107,295 shares during the period. 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 valued at $53,028,000 after buying an additional 1,906,255 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.56% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP James Barker Lebeck sold 17,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.02, for a total transaction of $647,850.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 14,705 shares in the company, valued at approximately $544,379.10. This represents a 54.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.45% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SM has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen cut shares of SM Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $37.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Mizuho raised shares of SM Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Roth Capital raised shares of SM Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Siebert Williams Shank upgraded SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $41.00 in a report on Thursday, May 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.93.

SM Energy Stock Performance

Shares of SM opened at $38.00 on Wednesday. SM Energy Company has a 12 month low of $17.45 and a 12 month high of $38.25. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $31.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $29.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.48 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The energy company reported $2.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.50 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 215.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that SM Energy Company will post 7.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.32%.

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.