Gabelli Funds LLC Decreases Stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Gabelli Funds LLC decreased its holdings in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 3.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 88,750 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 2,945 shares during the quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC’s holdings in Sempra were worth $7,785,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in Sempra by 1.9% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,407,666 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $201,352,000 after buying an additional 45,884 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Sempra during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $246,000. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Sempra during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $6,029,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in shares of Sempra in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $380,000. Finally, Blankinship & Foster LLC purchased a new position in Sempra in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,338,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $99.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Sempra from $92.00 to $78.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Sempra from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Barclays lowered shares of Sempra from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $95.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Sempra from $92.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Sempra has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $80.31.

Insider Transactions at Sempra

In related news, 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $165.88. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 2,755 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.93, for a total value of $225,717.15. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 13,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,139,236.65. This represents a 16.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders acquired 9,319 shares of company stock valued at $651,676 and sold 57,309 shares valued at $4,694,019. Company insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

Sempra Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of SRE opened at $70.51 on Thursday. Sempra has a twelve month low of $61.90 and a twelve month high of $95.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.53, a price-to-earnings-growth 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’s fifty day simple moving average is $72.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $81.63.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $3.76 billion for 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%. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.13 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 20th were paid a dividend of $0.645 per share. This is an increase from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.66%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 20th. Sempra’s payout ratio is currently 58.37%.

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.