SM Energy Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.20 (NYSE:SM)

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

SM Energy has increased its dividend by an average of 236.2% per year over the last three years. SM Energy has a payout ratio of 11.6% meaning 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 Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE SM traded down $0.57 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $30.23. 1,469,413 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,709,225. The company has a market capitalization of $3.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.52 and a beta of 4.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 3.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. SM Energy has a 52-week low of $26.66 and a 52-week high of $53.26. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $35.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $39.54.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The energy company reported $1.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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. Equities research analysts expect that SM Energy will post 8.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on SM. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $57.00 price objective on shares of SM Energy in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Williams Trading set a $41.00 price objective on SM Energy in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on SM Energy from $45.00 to $33.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Raymond James dropped their target price on shares of SM Energy from $59.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded SM Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $48.00.

Insider Transactions at SM Energy

In other news, Director Barton R. Brookman, Jr. acquired 7,000 shares of SM Energy stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was bought at an average price of $32.36 per share, for a total transaction of $226,520.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 14,666 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $474,591.76. The trade was a 91.31 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

SM Energy Company 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.