Ascent Group LLC Sells 921 Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Ascent Group LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 1.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 54,832 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 921 shares during the period. Ascent Group LLC’s holdings in Sempra were worth $4,171,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of SRE. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Sempra by 30.6% during the fourth quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 39,575 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,957,000 after acquiring an additional 9,279 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Sempra by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 249,374 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $18,636,000 after buying an additional 10,874 shares during the period. TFO Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Sempra by 386,400.0% in the 4th quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,865 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $289,000 after buying an additional 3,864 shares during the period. Evoke Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Sempra in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,785,000. Finally, Partners Capital Investment Group LLP acquired a new position in Sempra during the 4th quarter worth approximately $220,000. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on SRE shares. Barclays raised their price objective on Sempra from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Sempra in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $94.00 price target for the company. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Sempra from $83.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Sempra from $90.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Sempra from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Sempra has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $85.42.

Sempra Trading Up 1.6 %

NYSE:SRE opened at $83.25 on Friday. Sempra has a 52 week low of $63.75 and a 52 week high of $84.38. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $80.99 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $76.34. 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 firm has a market cap of $52.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.75.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by ($0.03). The business 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 quarter last year, the business posted $0.94 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Sempra will post 4.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.98%. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.93%.

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.