Diversify Advisory Services LLC Acquires Shares of 2,684 Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Diversify Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 2,684 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $235,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SRE. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Sempra by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 34,324,893 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,870,591,000 after purchasing an additional 128,847 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Sempra by 4.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 32,940,620 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,774,974,000 after buying an additional 1,539,026 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Sempra by 9.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,978,605 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,587,181,000 after buying an additional 1,582,653 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its holdings in Sempra by 6.9% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 13,452,912 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,023,228,000 after buying an additional 874,133 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position 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 valued at $1,063,007,000 after buying an additional 145,873 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on SRE shares. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Sempra from $89.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Sempra from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Sempra from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Sempra from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $91.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 23,713 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.09, for a total value of $2,207,443.17. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,041,677.10. This represents a 67.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.24% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Sempra Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of Sempra stock opened at $82.88 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $52.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.78. Sempra has a 52-week low of $66.40 and a 52-week high of $95.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.52. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $88.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $84.05.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.05 by ($0.16). The business had revenue of $2.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.54 billion. Sempra had a net margin of 22.63% and a return on equity of 8.06%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.08 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Sempra will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Sempra Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th were issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.99%. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.63%.

Sempra 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.