SM Energy (NYSE:SM) Plans $0.20 Quarterly Dividend

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 27th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th will be given a dividend of 0.20 per share by the energy company on Monday, May 5th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.65%.

SM Energy has raised its dividend by an average of 236.2% annually over the last three years. SM Energy has a dividend payout ratio of 11.6% 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 Down 1.8 %

SM Energy stock opened at $30.23 on Friday. SM Energy has a twelve month low of $26.66 and a twelve month high of $53.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 3.52 and a current ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market cap of $3.46 billion, a PE ratio of 4.52 and a beta of 4.14. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $34.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $39.47.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The energy company reported $1.91 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.00 by ($0.09). SM Energy had a return on equity of 19.82% and a net margin of 28.63%. The company had revenue of $852.22 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $849.44 million. On average, research analysts predict that SM Energy will post 8.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on SM. Mizuho reduced their price target on SM Energy from $57.00 to $55.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of SM Energy from $54.00 to $41.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $57.00 target price on shares of SM Energy in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of SM Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $45.00 to $33.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, SM Energy has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $48.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at SM Energy

In other SM Energy news, Director Barton R. Brookman, Jr. purchased 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $32.36 per share, for a total transaction of $226,520.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 14,666 shares in the company, valued at $474,591.76. This represents a 91.31 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

About SM Energy

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.