Savant Capital LLC Acquires 272 Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Savant Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 5.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 5,525 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 272 shares during the quarter. Savant Capital LLC’s holdings in Sempra were worth $413,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Sempra by 20.4% during the 4th quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 9,653 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $721,000 after buying an additional 1,637 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in Sempra by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,439 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $481,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. grew its holdings in Sempra by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 2,100,836 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $156,995,000 after purchasing an additional 72,495 shares during the period. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC increased its stake in Sempra by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 10,988 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $821,000 after purchasing an additional 917 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Choreo LLC raised its holdings in shares of Sempra by 91.8% during the fourth quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 12,261 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $918,000 after purchasing an additional 5,869 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com lowered Sempra from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Sempra from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $76.00 to $84.00 in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $82.00 target price on shares of Sempra in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Sempra from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Sempra from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Sempra currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $82.14.

Sempra Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE:SRE opened at $72.92 on Monday. Sempra has a 52 week low of $63.75 and a 52 week high of $78.70. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $70.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $71.80. The firm has a market cap 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. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 0.54.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.11 by $0.02. Sempra had a return on equity of 9.45% and a net margin of 18.26%. The business had revenue of $3.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.17 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Sempra will post 4.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors 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%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 20th. This is an increase from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.77%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Diana L. Day sold 3,937 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.21, for a total transaction of $280,353.77. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 18,145 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,292,105.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Diana L. Day sold 3,937 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.21, for a total transaction of $280,353.77. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 18,145 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,292,105.45. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 57,571 shares of Sempra stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.59, for a total value of $4,063,936.89. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 10,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $770,983.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 122,432 shares of company stock valued at $8,668,035. Company insiders own 0.27% 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.