Vanguard Group Inc. Has $5.53 Billion Stock Position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 63,018,055 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 490,269 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 9.95% of Sempra worth $5,527,944,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SRE. Crews Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in Sempra in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Sempra during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. TCTC Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Sempra by 265.2% during the fourth quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC now owns 336 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 244 shares during the period. Human Investing LLC acquired a new position in shares of Sempra during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Finally, ST Germain D J Co. Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Sempra by 225.6% during the fourth quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 433 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of Sempra stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.94, for a total transaction of $4,125,186.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2 shares in the company, valued at $165.88. This trade represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Pablo Ferrero acquired 2,600 shares of Sempra stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $70.96 per share, with a total value of $184,496.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 15,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,110,453.04. The trade was a 19.92 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders acquired 9,319 shares of company stock worth $651,676 over the last three months. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on SRE. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Sempra from $96.00 to $88.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Sempra from $92.00 to $78.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $99.00 to $76.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Sempra from $92.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and set a $77.00 target price (down previously from $96.00) on shares of Sempra in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Sempra currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.58.

Sempra Trading Down 0.6 %

SRE opened at $69.56 on Monday. Sempra has a 1-year low of $64.89 and a 1-year high of $95.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The company has a market cap of $45.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $78.36 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $83.58.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.47 by $0.03. Sempra had a net margin of 22.63% and a return on equity of 8.06%. The firm had revenue of $3.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.73 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.13 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Sempra will post 4.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.645 per share. This is a boost from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.71%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 20th. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 58.37%.

Sempra Company Profile

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.