Define Financial LLC Acquires New Shares in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Define Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 2,696 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $237,000. Sempra accounts for about 0.2% of Define Financial LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 29th largest position.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Unigestion Holding SA purchased a new position in Sempra during the third quarter worth about $33,023,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Sempra by 8.8% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,428,132 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $286,695,000 after acquiring an additional 278,183 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Sempra by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 357,107 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,865,000 after purchasing an additional 6,709 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Sempra in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $675,000. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its position in Sempra by 14.4% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 190,714 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $15,949,000 after purchasing an additional 23,970 shares during the period. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Sempra from $89.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Sempra from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley raised Sempra from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Sempra from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Sempra in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $98.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Sempra presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $91.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 23,713 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.09, for a total transaction of $2,207,443.17. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 11,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,041,677.10. This represents a 67.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Sempra Stock Up 1.5 %

SRE stock opened at $78.12 on Wednesday. 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 market cap of $49.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.78. Sempra has a 12 month low of $66.40 and a 12 month high of $95.77. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $88.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $83.73.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.05 by ($0.16). Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. The business had revenue of $2.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.54 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.08 EPS. Sempra’s quarterly revenue was down 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be issued a $0.62 dividend. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.63%.

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.