Sempra (NYSE:SRE) Shares Sold by Russell Investments Group Ltd.

Russell Investments Group Ltd. cut its holdings in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 17.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 252,147 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 53,198 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned about 0.08% of Sempra worth $36,689,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Sempra by 3.4% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,450,946 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,882,085,000 after purchasing an additional 404,289 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Sempra in the fourth quarter valued at $1,000,291,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Sempra by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,705,221 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $862,401,000 after purchasing an additional 375,287 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Sempra by 17.5% during the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 5,603,494 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $847,024,000 after purchasing an additional 836,059 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its position in Sempra by 24.9% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,933,253 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $762,385,000 after purchasing an additional 982,317 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.83% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Sempra from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 6th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Sempra from $91.00 to $82.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 6th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Sempra from $87.00 to $83.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 4th. Barclays decreased their target price on Sempra from $78.00 to $76.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 24th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on Sempra from $95.00 to $89.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.05.

Sempra Stock Up 0.2 %

SRE stock opened at $72.43 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $70.29 and a 200-day simple moving average of $71.99. The company has a market capitalization of $45.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.75, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.74. Sempra has a twelve month low of $63.75 and a twelve month high of $84.13.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last issued its earnings results on Friday, November 3rd. The utilities provider reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $3.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.68 billion. Sempra had a net margin of 16.51% and a return on equity of 9.88%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.99 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Sempra will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 6th will be given a $0.595 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 5th. This represents a $2.38 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.29%. Sempra’s payout ratio is 55.03%.

Sempra Company Profile

Sempra operates as an energy infrastructure company in the United States and internationally. It operates through four segments: San Diego Gas & Electric Company, Southern California Gas Company, Sempra Texas Utilities, and Sempra Infrastructure. The San Diego Gas & Electric Company segment provides to San Diego and southern Orange counties; and natural gas service to San Diego County.