Sempra (NYSE:SRE) Stock Position Lowered by Amalgamated Bank

Amalgamated Bank lowered its position in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 0.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 124,482 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,101 shares during the quarter. Amalgamated Bank’s holdings in Sempra were worth $10,920,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of SRE. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Sempra by 8,093.4% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 52,520 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,392,000 after buying an additional 51,879 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of Sempra by 17.8% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 17,804 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,489,000 after acquiring an additional 2,693 shares during the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Sempra by 18.8% in the 3rd quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 4,263 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $357,000 after acquiring an additional 674 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Sempra by 20.0% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 51,521 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,289,000 after purchasing an additional 8,587 shares during the period. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Sempra

In other Sempra news, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 2,755 shares of Sempra stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 13,905 shares in the company, valued at $1,139,236.65. The trade was a 16.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was 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 $165.88. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Sempra Price Performance

NYSE SRE opened at $70.67 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.52 and a quick ratio of 0.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $83.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $84.93. Sempra has a 52-week low of $64.89 and a 52-week high of $95.77.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $3.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.73 billion. Sempra had a net margin of 22.63% and a return on equity of 8.06%. The company’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.13 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 20th will be given a dividend of $0.645 per share. This is a boost from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.65%. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.63%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Sempra from $99.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Sempra from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Sempra from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $85.00 to $98.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $91.20.

Sempra Company 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.