Bcwm LLC Buys New Position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Bcwm LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 121,300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $10,640,000. Sempra accounts for about 3.8% of Bcwm LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest holding.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of SRE. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Sempra in the 4th quarter valued at $1,535,000,000. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Sempra by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 32,940,620 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,774,974,000 after acquiring an additional 1,539,026 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Sempra in the fourth quarter valued at $123,614,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new position in shares of Sempra during the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,956,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Sempra by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,018,055 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,527,944,000 after acquiring an additional 490,269 shares in the last quarter. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on SRE. Mizuho cut 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. Argus downgraded shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $99.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Sempra from $92.00 to $78.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Barclays downgraded 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. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Sempra presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $81.33.

Sempra Stock Down 0.6 %

Sempra stock opened at $69.65 on Friday. 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 fifty-two week low of $64.89 and a fifty-two week high of $95.77. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $77.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $83.13. The firm has a market cap of $45.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.76.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 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 business had revenue of $3.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.73 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.13 earnings per share. Sempra’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be paid a $0.645 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 20th. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.70%. This is a boost from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. Sempra’s payout ratio is 58.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of Sempra stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $165.88. This trade represents a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Pablo Ferrero bought 2,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $70.96 per share, with a total value of $184,496.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 15,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,110,453.04. This trade represents a 19.92 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have acquired a total of 9,319 shares of company stock worth $651,676 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

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.