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SM Energy (SM) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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SM Energy (SM - Free Report) closed at $40.44 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.84% move from the prior day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 2.45%. At the same time, the Dow added 2.15%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.18%.

Coming into today, shares of the independent oil and gas company had lost 1.61% in the past month. In that same time, the Oils-Energy sector lost 9.07%, while the S&P 500 lost 5.71%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from SM Energy as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.25, up 22400% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $773.41 million, up 37.17% from the prior-year quarter.

SM's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $9.23 per share and revenue of $3.17 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +398.92% and +20.88%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for SM Energy. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 4.49% higher. SM Energy is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Investors should also note SM Energy's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 4.3. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 4.65.

The Oil and Gas - Exploration and Production - United States industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 45, putting it in the top 18% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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