DRW Securities LLC Purchases Shares of 4,002 Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

DRW Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 4,002 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $304,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of SRE. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Sempra by 12.1% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 27,123,899 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,026,969,000 after purchasing an additional 2,917,668 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Sempra by 5,279.4% during the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,583,816 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $113,591,000 after buying an additional 1,554,374 shares during the period. M&G Plc purchased a new stake in Sempra during the first quarter valued at about $64,994,000. Zimmer Partners LP boosted its holdings in shares of Sempra by 96.9% in the first quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 1,636,202 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $117,528,000 after buying an additional 805,084 shares during the period. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Sempra in the first quarter worth about $42,630,000. 89.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on SRE. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Sempra in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $94.00 price target on the stock. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Sempra from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Sempra from $90.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH dropped their price target on Sempra from $81.50 to $79.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Sempra from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $85.00.

Sempra Trading Up 1.1 %

NYSE:SRE opened at $84.06 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $52.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.75. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $80.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $76.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.46. Sempra has a 52 week low of $63.75 and a 52 week high of $84.29.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.92 by ($0.03). Sempra had a return on equity of 8.58% and a net margin of 22.31%. The business had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.94 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 26th will be issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 26th. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.95%. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.99%.

Sempra 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.