Rockland Trust Co. Sells 821 Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Rockland Trust Co. trimmed its position in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 11.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,415 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 821 shares during the quarter. Rockland Trust Co.’s holdings in Sempra were worth $536,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new stake in shares of Sempra during the first quarter worth $815,000. Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Sempra in the first quarter worth $2,293,000. Forsta AP Fonden boosted its holdings in Sempra by 13.7% during the first quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 117,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,418,000 after purchasing an additional 14,100 shares during the last quarter. Perpetual Ltd grew its position in Sempra by 4.8% in the first quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 2,891,026 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $207,662,000 after purchasing an additional 133,119 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in Sempra by 249.9% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 155,854 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,195,000 after buying an additional 111,314 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SRE has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Sempra from $90.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Sempra from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Sempra in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $94.00 price objective on the stock. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Sempra from $83.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Sempra from $87.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $85.27.

Sempra Price Performance

SRE traded up $0.07 on Friday, hitting $82.60. 1,388,396 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,862,941. The firm has a market capitalization of $52.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.31, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.46 and a quick ratio of 0.41. Sempra has a 12 month low of $64.29 and a 12 month high of $84.47. The business has a 50-day moving average of $81.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $76.74.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.94 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 26th will be issued a $0.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 26th. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.00%. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.99%.

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.