Legal & General Group Plc Trims Stock Holdings in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Legal & General Group Plc trimmed its holdings in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 18.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,872,649 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,355,904 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.93% of Sempra worth $515,149,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in Sempra by 633.4% in the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 29,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,624,000 after buying an additional 25,838 shares during the period. Unigestion Holding SA purchased a new stake in shares of Sempra in the third quarter valued at about $33,023,000. L & S Advisors Inc increased its stake in shares of Sempra by 52.6% during the fourth quarter. L & S Advisors Inc now owns 41,601 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,649,000 after acquiring an additional 14,338 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Sempra by 8.8% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,428,132 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $286,695,000 after purchasing an additional 278,183 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Sempra in the third quarter valued at about $675,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on SRE shares. Argus downgraded Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Barclays cut shares of Sempra from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $95.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on shares of Sempra from $95.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Sempra from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Sempra from $92.00 to $78.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $81.33.

Insider Transactions at Sempra

In related news, EVP Justin Christopher Bird sold 4,817 shares of Sempra stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.23, for a total value of $343,114.91. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,778 shares in the company, valued at $1,408,786.94. The trade was a 19.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of Sempra stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The stock was 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 $165.88. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have bought 9,319 shares of company stock valued at $651,676 and have sold 57,309 shares valued at $4,694,019. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Sempra Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SRE opened at $63.89 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.52 and a quick ratio of 0.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.65 billion, a PE ratio of 14.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.65. Sempra has a 1-year low of $61.90 and a 1-year high of $95.77. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $75.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $82.57.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.47 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $3.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.73 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. The business’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.13 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Sempra will post 4.76 EPS for the current year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.645 per share. This is a positive change from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 20th. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 58.37%.

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.