United Services Automobile Association Sells 184 Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

United Services Automobile Association cut its holdings in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 1.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,162 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 184 shares during the quarter. United Services Automobile Association’s holdings in Sempra were worth $1,330,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in SRE. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Sempra by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,018,055 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,527,944,000 after buying an additional 490,269 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Sempra by 0.4% in 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 buying an additional 128,847 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Sempra by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 32,940,620 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,774,974,000 after acquiring an additional 1,539,026 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Sempra by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,978,605 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,587,181,000 after acquiring an additional 1,582,653 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Sempra by 1.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,761,872 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,063,007,000 after acquiring an additional 145,873 shares during the period. 89.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on SRE. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Sempra from $92.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Sempra from $92.00 to $78.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Argus lowered Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Barclays cut Sempra from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $95.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $99.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.58.

Insider Activity at Sempra

In other Sempra news, Director Pablo Ferrero bought 2,600 shares of Sempra stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $70.96 per share, with a total value of $184,496.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,110,453.04. This represents a 19.92 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 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 transaction of $4,125,186.78. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2 shares in the company, valued at approximately $165.88. This trade represents a 100.00 % 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 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Sempra Price Performance

SRE opened at $69.56 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $45.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.32, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a current ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. Sempra has a 12-month low of $64.89 and a 12-month high of $95.77. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $78.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $83.58.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.47 by $0.03. Sempra had a net margin of 22.63% and a return on equity of 8.06%. The company had revenue of $3.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.73 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.13 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate 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 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.71%. 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 payout ratio is 58.37%.

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.