Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC Has $821,000 Position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 9.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,988 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 917 shares during the period. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC’s holdings in Sempra were worth $821,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Monetary Management Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Sempra by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. Monetary Management Group Inc. now owns 400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC grew its holdings in shares of Sempra by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 390 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. Wolverine Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Sempra by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wolverine Asset Management LLC now owns 400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Spire Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of Sempra by 85.6% during the 3rd quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 412 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 190 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Sempra during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on SRE shares. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Sempra from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $76.00 to $84.00 in a report on Thursday, January 11th. StockNews.com cut shares of Sempra from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Sempra from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Sempra from $83.00 to $79.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective on shares of Sempra in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $82.14.

Sempra Stock Up 0.1 %

SRE stock opened at $72.92 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.49. Sempra has a 52-week low of $63.75 and a 52-week high of $78.70. The company has a 50-day moving average of $70.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $71.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.70.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by $0.02. Sempra had a net margin of 18.26% and a return on equity of 9.45%. The company had revenue of $3.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.17 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Sempra will post 4.82 EPS for the current year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 21st were issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.40%. This is a boost from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 20th. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio is 51.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Sempra

In other news, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 57,571 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.59, for a total transaction of $4,063,936.89. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $770,983.98. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 57,571 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.59, for a total transaction of $4,063,936.89. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $770,983.98. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Justin Christopher Bird sold 5,063 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.22, for a total transaction of $360,586.86. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,712 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,403,888.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 122,432 shares of company stock worth $8,668,035 over the last ninety days. 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.