SM Energy (NYSE:SM) Upgraded to Buy at StockNews.com

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Raymond James lowered their price objective on SM Energy from $53.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Mizuho raised their price objective on SM Energy from $51.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on SM Energy from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $45.00 target price on shares of SM Energy in a report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on SM Energy from $49.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.57.

SM Energy Stock Performance

Shares of SM stock opened at $49.81 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $46.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.13. SM Energy has a 12 month low of $25.03 and a 12 month high of $53.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.25 and a beta of 4.20. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The energy company reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.17. SM Energy had a return on equity of 20.74% and a net margin of 34.45%. The firm had revenue of $608.73 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $611.35 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.29 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that SM Energy will post 6.15 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On SM Energy

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SM. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of SM Energy by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,509,379 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $213,326,000 after buying an additional 493,427 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of SM Energy by 72.8% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,054,503 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $81,461,000 after buying an additional 865,480 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of SM Energy by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,593,103 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $61,685,000 after buying an additional 64,781 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of SM Energy by 5.7% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,547,315 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $61,351,000 after buying an additional 83,588 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Westwood Holdings Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of SM Energy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,075,000. Institutional investors own 94.56% 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.