American Century Companies Inc. Has $11.96 Million Stock Holdings in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

American Century Companies Inc. lowered its position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 33.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 157,177 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 80,046 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Sempra were worth $11,955,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brown Advisory Inc. increased its stake in Sempra by 11.7% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 5,638 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $421,000 after purchasing an additional 589 shares in the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Sempra in the 4th quarter worth about $288,000. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Sempra by 30.6% in the 4th quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 39,575 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,957,000 after acquiring an additional 9,279 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in Sempra by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 150,932 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $11,279,000 after purchasing an additional 1,260 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Commerce Bank increased its holdings in Sempra by 8.4% during the 4th quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 67,801 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,067,000 after purchasing an additional 5,265 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on SRE. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Sempra from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Sempra from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH lowered their target price on shares of Sempra from $81.50 to $79.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 29th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Sempra in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $94.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Sempra from $83.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $85.00.

Sempra Stock Performance

NYSE:SRE opened at $83.18 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $52.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.75. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $80.40 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $75.92. 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 has a 1 year low of $63.75 and a 1 year high of $84.29.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.92 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.46 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.58% and a net margin of 22.31%. The company’s revenue was down 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.94 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Sempra will post 4.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 26th will be paid a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.98%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 26th. Sempra’s 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.