Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey Acquires 7,167 Shares of Sempra Energy $SRE

Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey grew its position in shares of Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) by 7.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 99,150 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,167 shares during the quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey’s holdings in Sempra Energy were worth $7,513,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in SRE. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Sempra Energy by 26.8% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,686,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,474,236,000 after buying an additional 10,278,893 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Sempra Energy in the 1st quarter valued at $192,130,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp lifted its position in shares of Sempra Energy by 809.5% during the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 2,750,891 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $208,435,000 after purchasing an additional 2,448,415 shares in the last quarter. PointState Capital LP bought a new position in shares of Sempra Energy during the 1st quarter worth approximately $154,369,000. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new position in shares of Sempra Energy in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $160,357,000. 89.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen raised Sempra Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 8th. Barclays reduced their price objective on Sempra Energy from $101.00 to $98.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. BTIG Research raised Sempra Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $99.00 price target on shares of Sempra Energy in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Sempra Energy in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.42.

Insider Buying and Selling at Sempra Energy

In other Sempra Energy news, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 4,322 shares of Sempra Energy stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.55, for a total transaction of $400,001.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 11,325 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,048,128.75. The trade was a 27.62% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kevin C. Sagara sold 28,864 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.21, for a total value of $2,430,637.44. Following the sale, the director owned 15,475 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,303,149.75. This represents a 65.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 47,619 shares of company stock valued at $4,122,392. 0.27% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Sempra Energy Price Performance

NYSE SRE opened at $92.23 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93. The company has a market cap of $60.20 billion, a PE ratio of 22.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.68. Sempra Energy has a 52 week low of $61.90 and a 52 week high of $95.77. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $89.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $81.85.

Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.11 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.27. The company had revenue of $3.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.99 billion. Sempra Energy had a net margin of 20.28% and a return on equity of 8.42%. Sempra Energy’s revenue was up 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.89 EPS. Research analysts predict that Sempra Energy will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 11th will be issued a $0.645 dividend. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 11th. Sempra Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 79.14%.

Sempra Energy 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.