Korea Investment CORP Sells 29,702 Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Korea Investment CORP trimmed its position in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 6.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 440,509 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 29,702 shares during the quarter. Korea Investment CORP’s holdings in Sempra were worth $38,641,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of SRE. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Sempra by 4.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 32,940,620 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,774,974,000 after buying an additional 1,539,026 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Sempra in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $123,614,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in Sempra during the 4th quarter valued at $43,956,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Sempra by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,018,055 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,527,944,000 after purchasing an additional 490,269 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in shares of Sempra by 201.2% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 620,394 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $51,882,000 after purchasing an additional 414,406 shares during the last quarter. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Michael N. Mears acquired 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $67.70 per share, for a total transaction of $67,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $338,500. This trade represents a 25.00 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.94, for a total value of $4,125,186.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2 shares in the company, valued at $165.88. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders purchased 9,319 shares of company stock worth $651,676. 0.24% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Sempra Stock Down 0.9 %

SRE opened at $70.15 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $45.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.76. 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 fifty day moving average is $77.54 and its 200 day moving average is $83.22. Sempra has a fifty-two week low of $64.89 and a fifty-two week 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 for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $3.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.73 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.13 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be issued a $0.645 dividend. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 20th. This is an increase from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. Sempra’s payout ratio is 58.37%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SRE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $77.00 price objective (down from $96.00) on shares of Sempra in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Barclays cut Sempra from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $95.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Mizuho dropped their target price on Sempra from $92.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $99.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, UBS Group lowered shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $95.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Sempra currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.33.

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.