Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Has $92.20 Million Stock Position in SM Energy Company $SM

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. increased its position in shares of SM Energy Company (NYSE:SM) by 16.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,731,350 shares of the energy company’s stock after buying an additional 524,105 shares during the quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. owned about 3.25% of SM Energy worth $92,202,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of SM. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of SM Energy by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,269,443 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $457,320,000 after buying an additional 69,933 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in SM Energy by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,909,004 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $117,075,000 after buying an additional 226,911 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in SM Energy by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,710,106 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $66,979,000 after acquiring an additional 17,930 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in shares of SM Energy by 663.7% in the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,884,536 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $56,442,000 after acquiring an additional 1,637,779 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of SM Energy by 169.4% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,873,860 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $56,122,000 after purchasing an additional 1,178,397 shares during the last quarter. 94.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on SM. Roth Capital set a $28.00 price objective on SM Energy in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Susquehanna reduced their price target on shares of SM Energy to $27.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of SM Energy from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of SM Energy in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded SM Energy from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, SM Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.64.

SM Energy Price Performance

NYSE SM opened at $18.86 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 2.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $23.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $24.94. SM Energy Company has a 1 year low of $17.58 and a 1 year high of $46.42.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 3rd. The energy company reported $1.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.08. SM Energy had a return on equity of 18.06% and a net margin of 25.94%.The business had revenue of $811.59 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $838.24 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.62 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 26.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that SM Energy Company will post 8.1 earnings per share for the current year.

SM Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 17th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 17th. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 12.62%.

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.