FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH Sells 226 Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH lessened its holdings in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 4.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,056 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 226 shares during the period. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH’s holdings in Sempra were worth $444,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in SRE. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its stake in Sempra by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 8,742 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $731,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI raised its holdings in Sempra by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI now owns 6,677 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $586,000 after buying an additional 155 shares during the last quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Sempra by 0.3% in the third quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 46,518 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,890,000 after buying an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. CX Institutional lifted its stake in shares of Sempra by 5.5% in the third quarter. CX Institutional now owns 3,083 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $258,000 after buying an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton increased its position in shares of Sempra by 4.2% during the third quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 4,031 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $337,000 after acquiring an additional 163 shares in the last quarter. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Sempra from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Sempra in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $98.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays boosted their target price on Sempra from $89.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Sempra from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $85.00 to $98.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Sempra currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $91.60.

Sempra Trading Up 1.5 %

Sempra stock opened at $85.24 on Friday. Sempra has a 52-week low of $66.40 and a 52-week high of $95.77. The company has a market cap of $53.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $88.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $83.73.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.05 by ($0.16). The company had revenue of $2.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.54 billion. Sempra had a net margin of 22.63% and a return on equity of 8.06%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Sempra will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Sempra Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th were paid a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 5th. Sempra’s payout ratio is 54.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Sempra

In other Sempra news, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 23,713 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.09, for a total value of $2,207,443.17. Following the completion of the sale, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

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.