Rothschild Investment LLC Sells 702 Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Rothschild Investment LLC reduced its position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 16.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,658 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 702 shares during the quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC’s holdings in Sempra were worth $321,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in SRE. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Sempra by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 8,742 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $731,000 after buying an additional 139 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Sempra by 8,093.4% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 52,520 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,392,000 after acquiring an additional 51,879 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Sempra by 17.8% during the third 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 period. Ballentine Partners LLC boosted its stake 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 valued at $357,000 after purchasing an additional 674 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Sempra by 20.0% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 51,521 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,289,000 after purchasing an additional 8,587 shares in the last quarter. 89.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 2,755 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,139,236.65. This represents a 16.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.94, for a total value 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 approximately $165.88. This trade represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Sempra Stock Performance

SRE stock opened at $70.67 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.76 billion, a PE ratio of 15.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.78. Sempra has a fifty-two week low of $64.89 and a fifty-two week high of $95.77. 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 company has a 50 day moving average price of $83.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $84.93.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 earnings per share 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 return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.13 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.76 EPS for the current year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SRE has been the subject of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays cut their target price 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. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Sempra from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $85.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price 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. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Sempra has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $91.20.

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.