Alpha Cubed Investments LLC Has $611,000 Holdings in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Alpha Cubed Investments LLC lessened its stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 12.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 6,966 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 948 shares during the period. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC’s holdings in Sempra were worth $611,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Sempra by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 15,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,198,000 after purchasing an additional 1,089 shares in the last quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Sempra by 41.0% during the 2nd quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,347 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $559,000 after purchasing an additional 2,136 shares in the last quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc raised its stake in shares of Sempra by 21.0% in the 2nd quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 112,645 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,568,000 after purchasing an additional 19,575 shares during the period. Profund Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Sempra by 48.8% in the 2nd quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 34,944 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,658,000 after purchasing an additional 11,458 shares during the period. Finally, Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Sempra by 20,483.3% in the 2nd quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 4,940 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $376,000 after purchasing an additional 4,916 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Sempra Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of SRE opened at $85.24 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $88.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $83.99. 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 one year low of $66.40 and a one year high of $95.77. The company has a market cap of $53.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.78.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.05 by ($0.16). The business had revenue of $2.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.54 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. The firm’s revenue was down 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th were issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.91%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 5th. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Sempra news, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 23,713 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.09, for a total transaction of $2,207,443.17. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,041,677.10. The trade was a 67.94 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.27% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on SRE shares. BMO Capital Markets upped 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. 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. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Sempra in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $98.00 price objective for the company. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Sempra from $89.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Sempra from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $91.60.

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.