Triad Wealth Partners LLC Makes New $201,000 Investment in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Triad Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 2,295 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $201,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of SRE. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Sempra by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,978,605 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,587,181,000 after buying an additional 1,582,653 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Sempra by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 32,940,620 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,774,974,000 after buying an additional 1,539,026 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in Sempra by 201.2% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 620,394 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $51,882,000 after buying an additional 414,406 shares during the period. Unigestion Holding SA acquired a new stake in Sempra during the 3rd quarter worth about $33,023,000. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in Sempra by 38.3% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,420,045 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $118,219,000 after buying an additional 393,277 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Sempra news, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.94, for a total transaction of $4,125,186.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $165.88. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 2,755 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.93, for a total value of $225,717.15. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 13,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,139,236.65. The trade was a 16.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SRE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Sempra from $92.00 to $78.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Mizuho lowered their target price on Sempra from $92.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $99.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Sempra from $96.00 to $88.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Barclays cut Sempra from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $95.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Sempra presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.54.

Sempra Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE SRE opened at $72.01 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $46.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.86, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.78. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $82.15 and a 200 day simple moving average of $84.58. Sempra has a 52 week low of $64.89 and a 52 week high of $95.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.52.

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

Sempra Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be given a dividend of $0.645 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 20th. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.58%. This is a boost from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio is presently 58.37%.

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.