California State Teachers Retirement System Has $4.15 Million Stock Position in SM Energy (NYSE:SM)

California State Teachers Retirement System reduced its holdings in SM Energy (NYSE:SM) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 107,015 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 2,685 shares during the quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in SM Energy were worth $4,148,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its position in shares of SM Energy by 64.5% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 4,730 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $183,000 after buying an additional 1,854 shares during the period. Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of SM Energy by 47.3% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 250,218 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $10,002,000 after buying an additional 80,343 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of SM Energy by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 635,822 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $24,644,000 after buying an additional 24,701 shares during the period. Intrust Bank NA acquired a new stake in shares of SM Energy during the fourth quarter worth $396,000. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers increased its position in shares of SM Energy by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 393,864 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $15,266,000 after buying an additional 7,887 shares during the period. 94.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on SM. Williams Trading set a $41.00 price objective on shares of SM Energy in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $46.00 to $42.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $60.00 to $36.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of SM Energy from $45.00 to $33.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, Susquehanna cut their target price on shares of SM Energy from $39.00 to $24.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.42.

SM Energy Stock Up 5.5%

Shares of NYSE SM opened at $25.25 on Wednesday. SM Energy has a 12-month low of $19.67 and a 12-month high of $50.20. The firm has a market cap of $2.89 billion, a PE ratio of 3.78 and a beta of 2.17. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $23.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.04. The company has a quick ratio of 3.52, a current ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The energy company reported $1.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.16. SM Energy had a net margin of 28.63% and a return on equity of 19.82%. The firm had revenue of $844.54 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $814.62 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.13 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 50.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that SM Energy will post 8.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SM Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.17%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 17th. SM Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 11.20%.

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.