Ballentine Partners LLC Invests $215,000 in Sempra Energy $SRE

Ballentine Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,843 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $215,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Jacobi Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Sempra Energy by 10.3% during the first quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 5,641 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $403,000 after buying an additional 526 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its position in shares of Sempra Energy by 8.4% in the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 173,408 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,374,000 after purchasing an additional 13,433 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its position in shares of Sempra Energy by 7.0% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 3,495,527 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $249,435,000 after purchasing an additional 229,045 shares during the period. Energy Income Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Sempra Energy by 2.5% in the first quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 2,182,448 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $155,739,000 after purchasing an additional 52,838 shares during the period. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Sempra Energy by 46.0% in the first quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 37,501 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,676,000 after purchasing an additional 11,811 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SRE has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Mizuho raised their price target on Sempra Energy from $86.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $80.00 target price (up previously from $70.00) on shares of Sempra Energy in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Barclays lifted their target price on Sempra Energy from $71.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $93.00 target price (up previously from $86.00) on shares of Sempra Energy in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Sempra Energy from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Sempra Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.55.

Insider Buying and Selling at Sempra Energy

In other news, EVP Caroline Ann Winn sold 5,114 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.01, for a total transaction of $419,399.14. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 39,380 shares in the company, valued at $3,229,553.80. The trade was a 11.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kevin C. Sagara sold 28,864 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.21, for a total value of $2,430,637.44. Following the sale, the director owned 15,475 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,303,149.75. This represents a 65.10% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 49,987 shares of company stock valued at $4,267,870. 0.27% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Sempra Energy Price Performance

Sempra Energy stock opened at $89.74 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $82.42 and its 200 day moving average is $76.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.48 and a quick ratio of 0.41. The firm has a market cap of $58.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.65. Sempra Energy has a one year low of $61.90 and a one year high of $95.77.

Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.35 billion. Sempra Energy had a return on equity of 8.42% and a net margin of 20.28%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.89 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Sempra Energy will post 4.76 EPS for the current year.

Sempra Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 1st will be paid a $0.645 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 1st. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. Sempra Energy’s payout ratio is 62.32%.

Sempra Energy 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.