Net Worth Advisory Group Acquires New Position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Net Worth Advisory Group bought a new position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 2,950 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $247,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SRE. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in shares of Sempra by 5,279.4% during the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,583,816 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $113,591,000 after purchasing an additional 1,554,374 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new stake in Sempra in the first quarter worth $64,994,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in Sempra by 6.9% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 13,452,912 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,023,228,000 after buying an additional 874,133 shares during the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP raised its holdings in Sempra by 96.9% during the first quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 1,636,202 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $117,528,000 after buying an additional 805,084 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. bought a new stake in Sempra during the first quarter worth approximately $42,630,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Sempra from $87.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Sempra from $83.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Sempra from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Sempra from $90.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on Sempra in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $94.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Sempra currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $86.20.

Sempra Stock Performance

SRE opened at $85.96 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $82.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $77.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market cap of $54.17 billion, a PE ratio of 19.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.75. Sempra has a 1 year low of $66.40 and a 1 year high of $86.13.

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

Sempra Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 26th were paid a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 26th. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio is 54.99%.

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.