Sanctuary Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 166,744 Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 166,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $11,892,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Perennial Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Sempra by 2.8% in the second quarter. Perennial Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,963 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $377,000 after buying an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. Transcend Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Sempra by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Transcend Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,983 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $379,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the period. Marcum Wealth LLC grew its position in Sempra by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 4,019 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $306,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares during the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. increased its stake in shares of Sempra by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 38,190 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,854,000 after purchasing an additional 147 shares during the period. Finally, SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Sempra by 4.0% in the second quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,794 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $289,000 after purchasing an additional 147 shares during the period. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Sempra from $90.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Bank of America started coverage on Sempra in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $94.00 price target on the stock. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Sempra from $87.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Sempra from $83.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Sempra from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $85.58.

Sempra Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:SRE opened at $82.53 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $52.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.28, a PEG ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.75. Sempra has a 1-year low of $64.29 and a 1-year high of $84.47. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $81.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $76.66.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last released 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 company had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.58% and a net margin of 22.31%. The business’s revenue was down 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.94 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Sempra will post 4.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 26th will be issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 26th. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.00%. Sempra’s payout ratio is presently 54.93%.

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.