First Manhattan CO. LLC. Raises Stock Position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

First Manhattan CO. LLC. lifted its holdings in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 0.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 106,864 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 762 shares during the period. First Manhattan CO. LLC.’s holdings in Sempra were worth $9,624,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Lindbrook Capital LLC raised its position in Sempra by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 2,410 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $211,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC raised its holdings in Sempra by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 8,194 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $719,000 after buying an additional 124 shares during the period. Pinnacle West Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Sempra by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Pinnacle West Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,585 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $227,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Sempra by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 2,639 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $232,000 after buying an additional 126 shares during the period. Finally, Avantax Planning Partners Inc. raised its stake in shares of Sempra by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Avantax Planning Partners Inc. now owns 7,423 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $651,000 after acquiring an additional 147 shares during the period. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on SRE. Barclays downgraded shares of Sempra from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the company from $95.00 to $72.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Argus downgraded Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Morgan Stanley set a $89.00 price objective on Sempra and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. UBS Group lowered Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $95.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Sempra from $93.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $80.54.

Sempra Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:SRE opened at $75.40 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $70.90 and a 200 day moving average of $80.54. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The company has a market capitalization of $49.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.63. Sempra has a 52 week low of $61.90 and a 52 week high of $95.77.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.32 by $0.12. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. The firm had revenue of $3.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.90 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.34 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side 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 was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 20th were paid a dividend of $0.645 per share. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 20th. This is a positive change from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. Sempra’s payout ratio is 58.37%.

Insider Activity at Sempra

In other Sempra news, EVP Justin Christopher Bird sold 4,817 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.23, for a total value of $343,114.91. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 19,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,408,786.94. This trade represents a 19.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 2,755 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.93, for a total transaction of $225,717.15. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now 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. Insiders bought 9,319 shares of company stock valued at $651,676 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

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.