Crews Bank & Trust Purchases Shares of 300 Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Crews Bank & Trust purchased a new position in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $26,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Unigestion Holding SA purchased a new stake in Sempra during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,023,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Sempra by 633.4% during the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 29,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,624,000 after buying an additional 25,838 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Sempra by 8.8% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,428,132 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $286,695,000 after buying an additional 278,183 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Sempra by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 357,107 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $29,865,000 after acquiring an additional 6,709 shares during the period. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC purchased a new position in Sempra in the 3rd quarter worth $675,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Sempra Price Performance

Sempra stock opened at $82.87 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $52.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.78. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $86.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $84.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.52. Sempra has a 1 year low of $66.40 and a 1 year high of $95.77.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.16). The company had revenue of $2.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.54 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.08 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Sempra will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Sempra

In other news, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 23,713 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.09, for a total value of $2,207,443.17. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,190 shares in the company, valued at $1,041,677.10. This represents a 67.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.94, for a total transaction of $4,125,186.78. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2 shares in the company, valued at $165.88. The trade was a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on SRE shares. Barclays cut their price objective on Sempra from $99.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Sempra from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Sempra from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Sempra from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $85.00 to $98.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $91.20.

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.