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SM Energy Buys Additional Permian Acreage for $1.6 Billion

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SM Energy Company (SM - Free Report) , an upstream energy player, recently declared the closure of the purchase of almost 35,700 net acres in the Midland Basin of West Texas for $1.6 billion. The payment was made through both cash and stock.

SM Energy is estimated to have paid $1.1 billion in cash and roughly 13.4 million shares to QStar LLC – a portfolio company of EnCap Investments L.P. and a related entity – to buy the Permian acreage. The acquisition plan reflects SM Energy’s focus on increasing its resources in the most productive properties so as to be able to earn significant cash flows for shareholders in the long run. The company now has Midland Basin coverage of almost 87,600 net acres.

We note that SM Energy has been selling assets that do not fit its portfolio to enhance its presence in the Permian Basin. In 2017, the company is expected to operate two rigs on the acreages.

Denver, CO-based SM Energy is an independent oil and gas company engaged in the exploration, exploitation, development, acquisition and production of natural gas and crude oil in North America. We expect the company’s attractive oil and gas investments, balanced and diverse portfolio of proved reserves and development drilling opportunities to create long-term value for shareholders.

However, during the prior three months, the company underperformed the Zacks categorized Oil & Gas-U.S Exploration & Production industry. Over the aforesaid period, SM Energy improved almost 4% compared with 13% improvement for the broader industry.   

As a result, SM Energy carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). 

Some better-ranked players in the energy sector are McDermott International, Inc. , Newfield Exploration Company and Suncor Energy Inc. (SU - Free Report) . All these companies sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here

McDermott beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the last four quarters with an average earnings surprise of 474.04%.

Newfield surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters with an average earnings surprise of 754.83%.

Suncor posted an average earnings surprise of 40.55% for the last four quarters.

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