MetLife Investment Management LLC Cuts Stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

MetLife Investment Management LLC cut its holdings in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 2.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 164,638 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 4,171 shares during the quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Sempra were worth $13,769,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SRE. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Sempra by 36.2% in the 1st quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 13,766 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $945,000 after purchasing an additional 3,658 shares during the period. iA Global Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Sempra by 30.4% in the first quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,984 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $502,000 after buying an additional 1,629 shares in the last quarter. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. raised its stake in Sempra by 5.8% in the first quarter. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. now owns 5,434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $390,000 after buying an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Sempra during the first quarter worth $27,338,000. Finally, Atria Investments Inc boosted its position in Sempra by 12.0% during the 1st quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 39,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,859,000 after acquiring an additional 4,258 shares in the last quarter. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Sempra Stock Up 1.1 %

SRE stock opened at $94.28 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $59.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.75. Sempra has a 12 month low of $66.40 and a 12 month high of $95.77. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $86.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $81.07. 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 (NYSE:SRE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.05 by ($0.16). The business had revenue of $2.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.54 billion. Sempra had a net margin of 22.63% and a return on equity of 8.06%. Sempra’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.08 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be issued a $0.62 dividend. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. Sempra’s payout ratio is presently 54.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Sempra

In other Sempra news, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 23,713 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.09, for a total value of $2,207,443.17. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,190 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,041,677.10. This represents a 67.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.27% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Sempra from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Sempra from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Barclays boosted their target price on Sempra from $87.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on Sempra in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $94.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.00.

About Sempra

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.