SM Energy (NYSE:SM) Announces $0.20 Quarterly Dividend

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 26th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 24th will be paid a dividend of 0.20 per share by the energy company on Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.12%.

SM Energy has raised its dividend by an average of 210.7% per year over the last three years. SM Energy has a dividend payout ratio of 10.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect SM Energy to earn $7.22 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 11.1%.

SM Energy Price Performance

SM stock traded up $0.14 during trading on Thursday, hitting $37.68. The company had a trading volume of 835,088 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,664,369. The company has a current ratio of 3.52, a quick ratio of 3.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $42.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $43.43. SM Energy has a fifty-two week low of $34.76 and a fifty-two week high of $53.26. The company has a market cap of $4.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.26 and a beta of 4.15.

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The energy company reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $643.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $643.67 million. SM Energy had a net margin of 33.89% and a return on equity of 19.62%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.73 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that SM Energy will post 6.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on SM. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $53.00 price objective (up previously from $51.00) on shares of SM Energy in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Susquehanna cut their price target on SM Energy from $48.00 to $46.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of SM Energy from $47.00 to $45.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $57.00 to $55.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $64.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, SM Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $50.64.

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.