Ipsen Advisor Group LLC Acquires Shares of 8,391 Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Ipsen Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 8,391 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $736,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of SRE. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. boosted its position in Sempra by 29.3% during the fourth quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 83,510 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,325,000 after purchasing an additional 18,947 shares during the last quarter. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. CA acquired a new stake in shares of Sempra during the 4th quarter valued at about $214,000. Zions Bancorporation N.A. grew its stake in shares of Sempra by 50.4% in the 4th quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 13,493 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,184,000 after buying an additional 4,521 shares in the last quarter. TIAA Trust National Association increased its holdings in Sempra by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. TIAA Trust National Association now owns 7,565 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $664,000 after buying an additional 654 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FineMark National Bank & Trust lifted its stake in Sempra by 9.9% in the fourth quarter. FineMark National Bank & Trust now owns 4,813 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $422,000 after acquiring an additional 434 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Pablo Ferrero acquired 2,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $70.96 per share, for a total transaction of $184,496.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 15,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,110,453.04. The trade was a 19.92 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of Sempra stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.94, for a total value of $4,125,186.78. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $165.88. The trade was a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders acquired 9,319 shares of company stock worth $651,676. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on SRE shares. Barclays downgraded shares of Sempra from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the company from $95.00 to $72.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Sempra from $96.00 to $88.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on Sempra from $95.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Sempra from $92.00 to $78.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price target on Sempra from $92.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $81.58.

Sempra Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of Sempra stock opened at $69.30 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $45.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.26, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.76. Sempra has a 1 year low of $64.89 and a 1 year high of $95.77. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $78.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $83.40. The company has a current ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.47 by $0.03. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. The firm had revenue of $3.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.73 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.13 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Sempra will post 4.76 EPS for the current year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be issued a $0.645 dividend. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.72%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 20th. This is a positive change from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. Sempra’s payout ratio is 58.37%.

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.