Sempra (NYSE:SRE) Position Increased by Optiver Holding B.V.

Optiver Holding B.V. lifted its position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 128.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,722 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 968 shares during the period. Optiver Holding B.V.’s holdings in Sempra were worth $151,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in SRE. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Sempra by 633.4% in the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 29,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,624,000 after acquiring an additional 25,838 shares in the last quarter. L & S Advisors Inc lifted its position in shares of Sempra by 52.6% in the 4th quarter. L & S Advisors Inc now owns 41,601 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,649,000 after acquiring an additional 14,338 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Sempra by 8.8% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,428,132 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $286,695,000 after acquiring an additional 278,183 shares in the last quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Sempra by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,071,091 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $93,956,000 after acquiring an additional 26,821 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. lifted its position in shares of Sempra by 11.7% in the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 9,479 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $831,000 after acquiring an additional 990 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Argus downgraded shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. BMO Capital Markets dropped 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. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $99.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Sempra from $93.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Sempra from $77.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $80.54.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.94, for a total value of $4,125,186.78. Following the transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 13,905 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,139,236.65. This trade represents a 16.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have bought 9,319 shares of company stock valued at $651,676 and have sold 57,309 shares valued at $4,694,019. Company insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

Sempra Stock Performance

NYSE:SRE opened at $75.63 on Tuesday. Sempra has a 1 year low of $61.90 and a 1 year high of $95.77. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $71.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $81.09. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $49.30 billion, a PE ratio of 16.66, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.65.

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

Sempra Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 20th were issued a dividend of $0.645 per share. This is an increase from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 20th. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.41%. Sempra’s dividend 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.