Simon Quick Advisors LLC Takes Position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Simon Quick Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 2,639 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $231,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in SRE. Eastern Bank purchased a new stake in Sempra during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Hollencrest Capital Management increased its holdings in Sempra by 250.0% in the 3rd quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management now owns 378 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 270 shares during the last quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. lifted its stake in Sempra by 225.6% in the 4th quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 433 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Sempra by 180.4% during the 3rd quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 443 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 285 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mather Group LLC. grew its position in shares of Sempra by 35.5% during the third quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 740 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $62,000 after purchasing an additional 194 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Sempra

In other Sempra news, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 23,713 shares of Sempra stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.09, for a total value of $2,207,443.17. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,041,677.10. The trade was a 67.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.24% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Sempra Price Performance

NYSE SRE opened at $82.78 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $52.43 billion, a PE ratio of 18.23, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.78. Sempra has a 52-week low of $66.40 and a 52-week high of $95.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.52. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $87.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $84.05.

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

Sempra Dividend Announcement

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

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.