D.A. Davidson & CO. Sells 1,534 Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

D.A. Davidson & CO. lessened its position in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 3.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 42,985 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,534 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Sempra were worth $3,595,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SRE. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Sempra by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,978,605 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,587,181,000 after purchasing an additional 1,582,653 shares during the last quarter. Qsemble Capital Management LP bought a new position in Sempra in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,230,000. Bank of Montreal Can raised its stake in shares of Sempra by 38.3% during the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,420,045 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $118,219,000 after acquiring an additional 393,277 shares during the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its stake in shares of Sempra by 24.7% during the third quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 5,512 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $461,000 after acquiring an additional 1,092 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DRW Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Sempra by 2,898.4% during the third quarter. DRW Securities LLC now owns 119,996 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $10,035,000 after acquiring an additional 115,994 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SRE has been the subject of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Sempra from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Sempra from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Sempra from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on shares of Sempra in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $94.00 price objective for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Sempra currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.00.

Sempra Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE:SRE opened at $94.28 on Friday. Sempra has a 12 month low of $66.40 and a 12 month high of $95.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $59.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.77, a PEG ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.75. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $86.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $81.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.16). Sempra had a net margin of 22.63% and a return on equity of 8.06%. The business had revenue of $2.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.54 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.08 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Sempra will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th will be given a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. Sempra’s payout ratio is currently 54.63%.

Insider Activity at Sempra

In other Sempra news, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 23,713 shares of Sempra stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.09, for a total value of $2,207,443.17. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 11,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,041,677.10. The trade was a 67.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.27% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Sempra

Sempra operates as an energy infrastructure company in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Sempra California, Sempra Texas Utilities, and Sempra Infrastructure. The Sempra California segment provides electric services; and natural gas services to San Diego County.