First Horizon Advisors Inc. Grows Position in SM Energy (NYSE:SM)

First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in SM Energy (NYSE:SM) by 31.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,469 shares of the energy company’s stock after buying an additional 353 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s holdings in SM Energy were worth $57,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its stake in shares of SM Energy by 13.0% in the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 24,127 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $957,000 after acquiring an additional 2,777 shares during the period. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in SM Energy in the third quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp acquired a new position in SM Energy during the third quarter worth $6,370,000. Park Avenue Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of SM Energy during the third quarter worth $226,000. Finally, Cable Hill Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of SM Energy in the third quarter valued at $235,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.56% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on SM shares. Mizuho raised their target price on SM Energy from $51.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $49.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. StockNews.com raised shares of SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of SM Energy from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on SM Energy from $45.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.57.

SM Energy Price Performance

Shares of SM opened at $51.16 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.02 and a beta of 4.21. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $48.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.72. SM Energy has a twelve month low of $25.03 and a twelve month high of $53.26. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The energy company reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $608.73 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $611.35 million. SM Energy had a return on equity of 20.10% and a net margin of 31.80%. SM Energy’s quarterly revenue was down 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.29 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that SM Energy will post 6.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 19th were paid a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 18th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.41%. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.29%.

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.