Atomi Financial Group Inc. Purchases 705 Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Atomi Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 7.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,257 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 705 shares during the period. Atomi Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Sempra were worth $900,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Sempra by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 34,324,893 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,870,591,000 after acquiring an additional 128,847 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Sempra by 4.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 32,940,620 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,774,974,000 after purchasing an additional 1,539,026 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Sempra by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,978,605 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,587,181,000 after buying an additional 1,582,653 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Sempra by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 13,452,912 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,023,228,000 after buying an additional 874,133 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Sempra by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,761,872 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,063,007,000 after buying an additional 145,873 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on SRE. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Sempra from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Sempra in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $98.00 target price on the stock. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Sempra from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Sempra from $89.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $91.60.

Sempra Trading Down 4.2 %

SRE stock opened at $82.86 on Thursday. Sempra has a 12 month low of $66.40 and a 12 month high of $95.77. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $88.25 and its 200 day moving average is $84.06. The company has a market capitalization of $52.48 billion, a PE ratio of 18.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.52 and a quick ratio of 0.47.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last posted its quarterly 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 net margin of 22.63% and a return on equity of 8.06%. The company had revenue of $2.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.54 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Sempra will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Sempra Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th were given a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 5th. Sempra’s payout ratio is 54.63%.

Insider Activity

In other Sempra news, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 23,713 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were 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 approximately $1,041,677.10. This trade represents a 67.94 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

Sempra Company 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.