Stonegate Investment Group LLC Grows Position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Stonegate Investment Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 10.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,577 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,334 shares during the quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Sempra were worth $1,135,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Sempra by 62.6% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,467 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $483,000 after acquiring an additional 2,490 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. bought a new position in shares of Sempra in the first quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV boosted its position in shares of Sempra by 7.7% in the first quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 2,424 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $174,000 after acquiring an additional 173 shares during the period. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp boosted its position in shares of Sempra by 0.9% in the first quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp now owns 21,574 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,550,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares during the period. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of Sempra by 1.7% in the first quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 17,906 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,286,000 after acquiring an additional 297 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Sempra in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $94.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Sempra from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Sempra from $83.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Sempra from $87.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Sempra from $90.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Sempra currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $86.20.

Sempra Trading Up 0.5 %

SRE stock opened at $85.96 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $54.43 billion, a PE ratio of 18.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.75. Sempra has a one year low of $66.40 and a one year high of $86.13. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $82.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $77.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.46.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.92 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.46 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.58% and a net margin of 22.31%. The company’s revenue was down 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.94 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Sempra will post 4.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 26th were paid a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.89%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 26th. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.99%.

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.