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

SM Energy (NYSE:SM) announced 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%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 24th.

SM Energy has increased its dividend by an average of 210.7% annually over the last three years. SM Energy has a 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

NYSE:SM opened at $37.82 on Friday. SM Energy has a 52-week low of $34.76 and a 52-week high of $53.26. The company has a market cap of $4.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.28 and a beta of 4.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 3.52 and a current ratio of 3.52. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $41.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.32.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on SM shares. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of SM Energy from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of SM Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. TD Cowen raised SM Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $64.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Truist Financial cut their price target on shares of SM Energy from $46.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of SM Energy in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $50.64.

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.