USA Financial Formulas Invests $1.20 Million in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

USA Financial Formulas bought a new stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 13,659 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,198,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Sempra by 0.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 34,324,893 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,870,591,000 after buying an additional 128,847 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Sempra by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 32,940,620 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,774,974,000 after acquiring an additional 1,539,026 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Sempra by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,978,605 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,587,181,000 after purchasing an additional 1,582,653 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Sempra by 6.9% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 13,452,912 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,023,228,000 after purchasing an additional 874,133 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Sempra by 1.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,761,872 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,063,007,000 after buying an additional 145,873 shares during the last quarter. 89.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Sempra from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays raised their target price on Sempra from $89.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Sempra from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Sempra from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $98.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Sempra presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $91.60.

Sempra Stock Performance

NYSE SRE opened at $82.55 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $88.85 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $83.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.52 and a quick ratio of 0.47. Sempra has a 1 year low of $66.40 and a 1 year high of $95.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $52.29 billion, a PE ratio of 18.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.78.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.16). The business had revenue of $2.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.54 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. Sempra’s revenue was down 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.08 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Sempra will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th were paid a $0.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.00%. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.63%.

Insider Transactions at Sempra

In other Sempra news, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 23,713 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.09, for a total value of $2,207,443.17. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 11,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,041,677.10. This represents a 67.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

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.