Kimelman & Baird LLC Invests $114,000 in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new position in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 1,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $114,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Family Firm Inc. bought a new stake in Sempra during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Sempra during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Financial Connections Group Inc. bought a new stake in Sempra during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $34,000. SouthState Corp raised its stake in Sempra by 900.0% during the 2nd quarter. SouthState Corp now owns 470 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 423 shares during the period. Finally, Opal Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Sempra during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $39,000. Institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Sempra Trading Up 0.5 %

SRE stock opened at $83.63 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $81.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $76.47. Sempra has a fifty-two week low of $63.75 and a fifty-two week high of $84.38. 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 $52.70 billion, a PE ratio of 18.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.75.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.92 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $3.01 billion for 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was down 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.94 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Sempra will post 4.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 26th will be paid a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.97%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 26th. Sempra’s payout ratio is 54.99%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their target price 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. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Sempra in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $94.00 price objective on the stock. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Sempra from $83.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research 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 research report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Sempra from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $85.42.

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.