CHICAGO TRUST Co NA Acquires 864 Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

CHICAGO TRUST Co NA increased its holdings in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 8.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,932 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 864 shares during the quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA’s holdings in Sempra were worth $914,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Sempra by 12.1% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 27,123,899 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,026,969,000 after purchasing an additional 2,917,668 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Sempra by 6.9% during 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 period. Perpetual Ltd grew its stake in Sempra by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 2,891,026 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $207,662,000 after buying an additional 133,119 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its holdings in Sempra by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 2,404,573 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $182,158,000 after acquiring an additional 48,592 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Sempra by 19.7% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,757,553 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $133,679,000 after acquiring an additional 289,731 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on SRE. Bank of America initiated coverage on Sempra in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $94.00 target price on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Sempra from $83.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Sempra from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Sempra from $90.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Sempra from $87.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $86.20.

Sempra Stock Performance

Sempra stock opened at $82.16 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $81.59 and a 200-day moving average of $77.20. The company has a market capitalization of $51.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.75. Sempra has a 1 year low of $66.40 and a 1 year high of $84.47. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.92 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. Sempra had a net margin of 22.31% and a return on equity of 8.58%. The company’s revenue was down 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.94 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Sempra will post 4.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 26th will be given a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 26th. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.99%.

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.