Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. Buys New Shares in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $26,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Crews Bank & Trust bought a new position in Sempra during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Synergy Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Sempra during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. TCTC Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of Sempra by 265.2% in the fourth quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC now owns 336 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 244 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Sempra in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Human Investing LLC bought a new stake in Sempra during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Sempra Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SRE opened at $69.65 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.52. The firm has a market cap of $45.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.76. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $77.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $83.15. Sempra has a fifty-two week low of $64.89 and a fifty-two week high of $95.77.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.47 by $0.03. Sempra had a net margin of 22.63% and a return on equity of 8.06%. The firm had revenue of $3.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.73 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.13 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be paid a $0.645 dividend. This is an increase from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.70%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 20th. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 58.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 2 shares in the company, valued at $165.88. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Cynthia J. Warner bought 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $70.65 per share, with a total value of $49,455.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,759 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $618,823.35. This trade represents a 8.69 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders bought 9,319 shares of company stock valued at $651,676 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on SRE. The Goldman Sachs Group cut Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $99.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and set a $77.00 target price (down from $96.00) on shares of Sempra in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Mizuho dropped their price target on Sempra from $92.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays downgraded shares of Sempra from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $95.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Argus cut shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.33.

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.