Sempra (NYSE:SRE) Shares Purchased by Private Advisor Group LLC

Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its holdings in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 1.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 8,742 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 139 shares during the quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in Sempra were worth $731,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in Sempra by 5,279.4% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,583,816 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $113,591,000 after acquiring an additional 1,554,374 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc purchased a new position in Sempra in the 1st quarter worth $64,994,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its stake in Sempra by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 13,452,912 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,023,228,000 after acquiring an additional 874,133 shares during the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP raised its stake in shares of Sempra by 96.9% during the 1st quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 1,636,202 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $117,528,000 after buying an additional 805,084 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Sempra during the 1st quarter valued at about $42,630,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on SRE. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Sempra from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Sempra from $87.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Sempra from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Bank of America assumed coverage on Sempra in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $94.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Sempra in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $98.00 target price on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.55.

Sempra Trading Down 2.1 %

SRE stock opened at $81.65 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $51.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.45, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.75. The business’s 50-day moving average is $83.14 and its 200 day moving average is $78.68. Sempra has a 12-month low of $66.40 and a 12-month high of $86.57. The company has a current ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.92 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.58% and a net margin of 22.31%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.94 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Sempra will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 26th were issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 26th. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio is currently 52.99%.

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.