Trek Financial LLC Takes $2.80 Million Position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Trek Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 31,858 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,795,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Crews Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Sempra during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Sempra during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Synergy Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Sempra in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. TCTC Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of Sempra by 265.2% in the fourth quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC now owns 336 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Sempra during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. 89.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SRE has been the topic of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Sempra from $92.00 to $78.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Sempra from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $77.00 price target (down previously from $96.00) on shares of Sempra in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. UBS Group downgraded shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $95.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Guggenheim lowered their target price on shares of Sempra from $95.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Michael N. Mears purchased 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $67.70 per share, for a total transaction of $67,700.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 5,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $338,500. The trade was a 25.00 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $165.88. The trade was a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have purchased 9,319 shares of company stock worth $651,676 and have sold 57,309 shares worth $4,694,019. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Sempra Stock Performance

Shares of SRE stock opened at $65.89 on Monday. 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 stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $75.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $82.70. The company has a market cap of $42.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.65. Sempra has a 12-month low of $64.89 and a 12-month high of $95.77.

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

Sempra Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be given a dividend of $0.645 per share. This is a positive change from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 20th. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio 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.