Legal & General Group Plc Makes New Investment in SM Energy Company $SM

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 501,543 shares of the energy company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,090,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of SM Energy by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 10,108 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $264,000 after buying an additional 371 shares during the last quarter. Quad Cities Investment Group LLC grew its stake in SM Energy by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Quad Cities Investment Group LLC now owns 13,777 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $360,000 after acquiring an additional 375 shares during the last quarter. Summit Global Investments grew its stake in SM Energy by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 46,417 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $868,000 after acquiring an additional 489 shares during the last quarter. State of Wyoming raised its position in SM Energy by 22.2% during the fourth quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 2,748 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 499 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 535 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.56% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other SM Energy news, EVP James Barker Lebeck sold 17,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.02, for a total value of $647,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 14,705 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $544,379.10. This trade represents a 54.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.45% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

SM Energy Stock Performance

SM Energy stock opened at $36.59 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $31.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.43. SM Energy Company has a 52 week low of $17.45 and a 52 week high of $38.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.20 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 released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The energy company reported $2.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.50 earnings per share. SM Energy’s revenue was up 215.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that SM Energy Company will post 7.45 earnings per share for the current year.

SM Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 7th will be given a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 17.32%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SM has been the subject of several research reports. Roth Capital upgraded SM Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Raymond James Financial dropped their price target on SM Energy from $55.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of SM Energy in a research report on Monday, August 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded SM Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered SM Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.93.

About SM Energy

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.