Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC Increases Position in SM Energy (NYSE:SM)

Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC increased its stake in shares of SM Energy (NYSE:SM) by 3.4% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 123,698 shares of the energy company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,108 shares during the period. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC’s holdings in SM Energy were worth $4,944,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of SM Energy by 6.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,341,875 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $274,161,000 after purchasing an additional 384,675 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in SM Energy by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,361,149 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $102,072,000 after buying an additional 28,005 shares during the period. River Road Asset Management LLC increased its stake in SM Energy by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,792,573 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $71,649,000 after buying an additional 12,669 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of SM Energy by 10.2% in the 2nd quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 1,709,927 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $73,920,000 after acquiring an additional 157,923 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 0.3% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,335,624 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $57,739,000 after acquiring an additional 4,611 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on SM. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Mizuho decreased their price target on SM Energy from $62.00 to $57.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 16th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on SM Energy from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Susquehanna decreased their target price on shares of SM Energy from $48.00 to $46.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Stephens increased their price target on shares of SM Energy from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $51.09.

SM Energy Stock Up 1.3 %

SM stock opened at $46.03 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 3.52 and a quick ratio of 3.52. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $42.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $44.72. SM Energy has a 12 month low of $34.13 and a 12 month high of $53.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.27 billion, a PE ratio of 6.43 and a beta of 4.18.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The energy company reported $1.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.10. SM Energy had a return on equity of 19.62% and a net margin of 33.89%. The firm had revenue of $643.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $643.67 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.73 EPS. SM Energy’s quarterly revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that SM Energy will post 6.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Investors of record on Friday, October 25th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This is an increase from SM Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 25th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.74%. SM Energy’s payout ratio is presently 11.17%.

SM Energy Profile

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.