Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Makes New Investment in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 16,781 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,472,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Sempra by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 34,324,893 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,870,591,000 after buying an additional 128,847 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in 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 buying an additional 1,539,026 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in Sempra by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,978,605 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,587,181,000 after buying an additional 1,582,653 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Sempra by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,761,872 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,063,007,000 after purchasing an additional 145,873 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Sempra by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,695,988 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $639,921,000 after purchasing an additional 129,891 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on SRE. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Sempra from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $85.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Sempra from $99.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Sempra from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, Sempra has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $91.20.

Sempra Trading Down 18.9 %

NYSE:SRE opened at $70.67 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $83.96 and a 200 day moving average of $84.93. Sempra has a 52 week low of $64.89 and a 52 week high of $95.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.78.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last posted its quarterly 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 net margin of 22.63% and a return on equity of 8.06%. The company 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 business posted $1.13 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be issued a $0.645 dividend. This is a positive change from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.65%. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio is 54.63%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Sempra news, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.94, for a total value of $4,125,186.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2 shares in the company, valued at approximately $165.88. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 2,755 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.93, for a total transaction of $225,717.15. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 13,905 shares in the company, valued at $1,139,236.65. This represents a 16.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Sempra 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.