Sempra Energy $SRE Stock Holdings Trimmed by Ethic Inc.

Ethic Inc. reduced its position in Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 119,414 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 490 shares during the period. Ethic Inc.’s holdings in Sempra Energy were worth $8,999,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Sempra Energy by 1.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,238,102 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,584,032,000 after buying an additional 1,220,047 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Sempra Energy by 26.8% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,686,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,474,236,000 after purchasing an additional 10,278,893 shares during the last quarter. Newport Trust Company LLC grew its holdings in shares of Sempra Energy by 0.3% during the first quarter. Newport Trust Company LLC now owns 13,331,160 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $951,312,000 after purchasing an additional 41,104 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Sempra Energy by 4.0% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,520,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $536,671,000 after purchasing an additional 291,026 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Sempra Energy by 12.4% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,489,903 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $534,479,000 after purchasing an additional 823,663 shares during the last quarter. 89.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on SRE shares. Evercore ISI set a $105.00 target price on Sempra Energy and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $99.00 target price on shares of Sempra Energy in a report on Wednesday. Barclays set a $101.00 target price on Sempra Energy and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Sempra Energy in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Mizuho upped their target price on Sempra Energy from $86.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $91.50.

Sempra Energy Stock Performance

Shares of SRE stock opened at $92.08 on Thursday. Sempra Energy has a 12-month low of $61.90 and a 12-month high of $95.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $60.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.66. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $85.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $79.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.48 and a quick ratio of 0.41.

Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.07. Sempra Energy had a return on equity of 8.42% and a net margin of 20.28%.The business had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.89 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Sempra Energy will post 4.76 EPS for the current year.

Sempra Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 1st were issued a $0.645 dividend. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 1st. Sempra Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 62.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kevin C. Sagara sold 28,864 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.21, for a total value of $2,430,637.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 15,475 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,303,149.75. This represents a 65.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Caroline Ann Winn sold 5,114 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.01, for a total value of $419,399.14. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 39,380 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,229,553.80. This trade represents a 11.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 48,411 shares of company stock valued at $4,141,790 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

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.