Brookstone Capital Management Decreases Stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Brookstone Capital Management reduced its stake in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 12.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,818 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 408 shares during the quarter. Brookstone Capital Management’s holdings in Sempra were worth $211,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SRE. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Sempra by 0.6% during the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 1,141,824 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $191,963,000 after acquiring an additional 6,246 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Sempra by 780.0% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,804 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $302,000 after acquiring an additional 1,599 shares during the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. bought a new stake in Sempra during the first quarter worth approximately $782,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Sempra by 3.6% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 668,646 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $112,411,000 after acquiring an additional 23,431 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its stake in Sempra by 77.4% during the first quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 13,575 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,276,000 after acquiring an additional 5,924 shares during the last quarter. 89.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Sempra news, insider Diana L. Day sold 3,937 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.21, for a total transaction of $280,353.77. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 18,145 shares in the company, valued at $1,292,105.45. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Sempra news, insider Diana L. Day sold 3,937 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.21, for a total transaction of $280,353.77. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 18,145 shares in the company, valued at $1,292,105.45. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 57,571 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.59, for a total value of $4,063,936.89. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 10,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $770,983.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 156,622 shares of company stock worth $11,089,713 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Sempra Stock Up 2.9 %

Shares of NYSE SRE opened at $71.25 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.87, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.71. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $70.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $71.64. Sempra has a 52-week low of $63.75 and a 52-week high of $79.51.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $3.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.01 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 9.45% and a net margin of 18.26%. Sempra’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.17 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Sempra will post 4.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 20th. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.48%. This is a positive change from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.77%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SRE has been the topic of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets raised Sempra from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $76.00 to $84.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Mizuho cut their target price on Sempra from $83.00 to $79.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. StockNews.com cut Sempra from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Sempra from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Sempra from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $82.17.

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.