Greenland Capital Management LP Purchases New Stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Greenland Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 65,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,786,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SRE. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Sempra by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,018,055 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,527,944,000 after buying an additional 490,269 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Sempra by 11.9% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 38,407,154 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,369,076,000 after acquiring an additional 4,082,261 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Sempra by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 20,489,918 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,797,376,000 after purchasing an additional 1,511,313 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Sempra in the 4th quarter valued at $1,535,000,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Sempra by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,072,966 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,143,248,000 after purchasing an additional 311,094 shares during the last quarter. 89.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SRE has been the topic of several analyst reports. Guggenheim cut their target price on Sempra from $95.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” 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 price target for the company from $99.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. UBS Group lowered shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $95.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Argus downgraded shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Sempra from $92.00 to $78.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.33.

Sempra Trading Down 3.0 %

NYSE SRE opened at $63.89 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $41.65 billion, a PE ratio of 14.07, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $75.51 and a 200-day moving average of $82.57. Sempra has a 12 month low of $61.90 and a 12 month high of $95.77.

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

Sempra Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Justin Christopher Bird sold 4,817 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.23, for a total value of $343,114.91. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 19,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,408,786.94. This represents a 19.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.94, for a total transaction of $4,125,186.78. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2 shares in the company, valued at $165.88. This trade represents a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders acquired 9,319 shares of company stock worth $651,676 and sold 57,309 shares worth $4,694,019. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Sempra 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.