Heritage Wealth Management Inc. CA Acquires New Shares in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Heritage Wealth Management Inc. CA bought a new position in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 2,444 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $214,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Sempra by 633.4% during the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 29,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,624,000 after purchasing an additional 25,838 shares in the last quarter. Unigestion Holding SA purchased a new stake in shares of Sempra in the third quarter worth about $33,023,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Sempra by 8.8% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,428,132 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $286,695,000 after acquiring an additional 278,183 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC purchased a new position in Sempra during the third quarter valued at approximately $675,000. Finally, Empower Advisory Group LLC increased its holdings in Sempra by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,071,091 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $93,956,000 after acquiring an additional 26,821 shares during the period. 89.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on SRE. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Sempra from $92.00 to $78.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Sempra from $96.00 to $88.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Guggenheim lowered their price target on Sempra from $95.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $99.00 to $76.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $95.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.58.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Sempra news, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.94, for a total value of $4,125,186.78. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $165.88. This trade represents a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 2,755 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.93, for a total transaction of $225,717.15. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 13,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,139,236.65. This trade represents a 16.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have purchased 9,319 shares of company stock valued at $651,676 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Sempra Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of SRE opened at $70.22 on Tuesday. Sempra has a fifty-two week low of $64.89 and a fifty-two week high of $95.77. The firm has a market cap of $45.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.47, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.76. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $78.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $83.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.52.

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, topping 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 business 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 20th will be given a dividend of $0.645 per share. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.67%. This is a positive change from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 20th. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.