Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Lowers Stock Holdings in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. lowered its position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 4.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,044,620 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 209,949 shares during the quarter. Sempra makes up about 1.9% of Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest position. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in Sempra were worth $354,794,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of SRE. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Sempra by 0.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 34,324,893 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,870,591,000 after acquiring an additional 128,847 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Sempra by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 32,940,620 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,774,974,000 after purchasing an additional 1,539,026 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Sempra by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,978,605 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,587,181,000 after purchasing an additional 1,582,653 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Sempra by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,761,872 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,063,007,000 after purchasing an additional 145,873 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Sempra by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,695,988 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $639,921,000 after buying an additional 129,891 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Sempra 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2 shares in the company, valued at $165.88. This trade represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 2,755 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.93, for a total transaction of $225,717.15. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 13,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,139,236.65. This represents a 16.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.24% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on SRE. UBS Group lowered shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $95.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $77.00 price target (down previously from $96.00) on shares of Sempra in a research note on Monday. Mizuho cut their price objective on Sempra from $92.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays downgraded Sempra from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $95.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.92.

Sempra Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of SRE stock opened at $71.41 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $46.52 billion, a PE ratio of 15.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.78. Sempra has a 1 year low of $64.89 and a 1 year high of $95.77. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $82.82 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $84.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.52 and a quick ratio of 0.47.

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

Sempra Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be issued a $0.645 dividend. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 20th. This is a positive change from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 58.37%.

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.