Sempra (NYSE:SRE) Stock Position Boosted by Xponance Inc.

Xponance Inc. boosted its stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 1.0% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 89,302 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 899 shares during the quarter. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in Sempra were worth $6,792,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Crestline Management LP lifted its holdings in Sempra by 14.0% in the 4th quarter. Crestline Management LP now owns 119,174 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,906,000 after acquiring an additional 14,674 shares during the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new stake in Sempra in the 1st quarter valued at about $815,000. Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Sempra in the 1st quarter valued at about $2,293,000. Forsta AP Fonden lifted its holdings in Sempra by 13.7% in the 1st quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 117,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,418,000 after acquiring an additional 14,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Perpetual Ltd lifted its holdings in Sempra by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 2,891,026 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $207,662,000 after acquiring an additional 133,119 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Sempra Price Performance

NYSE SRE opened at $83.02 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $80.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $76.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.46 and a quick ratio of 0.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $52.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 0.75. Sempra has a 52-week low of $63.75 and a 52-week high of $84.38.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by ($0.03). The company 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%. Sempra’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.94 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Sempra will post 4.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 26th will be given a $0.62 dividend. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.99%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 26th. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.93%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on SRE. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Sempra from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH cut their price target 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. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Sempra from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Sempra from $90.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective 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. One 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Sempra presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $85.00.

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.