Capital Group Investment Management PTE. LTD. Has $2.13 Million Position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Capital Group Investment Management PTE. LTD. grew its holdings in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 40.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 24,312 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,006 shares during the quarter. Capital Group Investment Management PTE. LTD.’s holdings in Sempra were worth $2,133,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of SRE. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Sempra by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,018,055 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,527,944,000 after buying an additional 490,269 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Sempra by 11.9% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 38,407,154 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,369,076,000 after acquiring an additional 4,082,261 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Sempra by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 20,489,918 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,797,376,000 after acquiring an additional 1,511,313 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Sempra during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,535,000,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Sempra by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,072,966 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,143,248,000 after purchasing an additional 311,094 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Sempra Trading Up 1.1 %

SRE stock opened at $71.14 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $46.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.65. Sempra has a 1-year low of $61.90 and a 1-year high of $95.77. The business’s 50 day moving average is $72.66 and its 200-day moving average is $81.54.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.03. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. The company had revenue of $3.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.73 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.13 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 20th were issued a $0.645 dividend. This is an increase from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.63%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 20th. Sempra’s payout ratio is presently 58.37%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SRE has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Sempra from $92.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. UBS Group lowered Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $95.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Sempra from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Sempra from $92.00 to $78.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Sempra from $93.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Sempra has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $80.31.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.94, for a total transaction of $4,125,186.78. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2 shares in the company, valued at $165.88. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Pablo Ferrero acquired 2,600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The stock was bought at an average price of $70.96 per share, with a total value of $184,496.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,649 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,110,453.04. This represents a 19.92 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have acquired 9,319 shares of company stock worth $651,676 and have sold 57,309 shares worth $4,694,019. 0.27% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Sempra

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.