Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Buys 422 Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 29,446 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 422 shares during the quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Sempra were worth $2,240,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in SRE. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Sempra by 11.6% during the second quarter. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC now owns 4,324 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $329,000 after purchasing an additional 451 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Sempra by 19.7% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,757,553 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $133,679,000 after buying an additional 289,731 shares during the last quarter. Bcwm LLC grew its holdings in shares of Sempra by 4.5% in the second quarter. Bcwm LLC now owns 143,322 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $10,901,000 after acquiring an additional 6,149 shares in the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its position in shares of Sempra by 420.0% during the second quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 4,420 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $336,000 after acquiring an additional 3,570 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Teilinger Capital Ltd. bought a new stake in Sempra during the second quarter worth $17,494,000. Institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Sempra Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of SRE stock opened at $83.60 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $52.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.52, a PEG ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.75. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $79.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $75.60. Sempra has a 1 year low of $63.75 and a 1 year high of $84.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.46 and a quick ratio of 0.41.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. Sempra had a net margin of 22.31% and a return on equity of 8.58%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.94 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Sempra will post 4.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 26th will be given a $0.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 26th. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.97%. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.93%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SRE has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays upped their price objective on Sempra from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH decreased their price objective on shares of Sempra from $81.50 to $79.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 29th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Sempra from $83.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Sempra from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Sempra from $90.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $85.00.

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.