Cedrus LLC Reduces Stock Position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Cedrus LLC cut its stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 34.7% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,491 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,322 shares during the quarter. Cedrus LLC’s holdings in Sempra were worth $208,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in Sempra by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,234,424 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $103,235,000 after purchasing an additional 53,538 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Sempra by 119.5% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 6,356 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $483,000 after buying an additional 3,460 shares in the last quarter. Net Worth Advisory Group bought a new position in shares of Sempra in the third quarter valued at approximately $247,000. OmniStar Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Sempra during the third quarter valued at approximately $627,000. Finally, Aspiriant LLC bought a new stake in Sempra during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $222,000. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Sempra Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of SRE opened at $85.96 on Monday. Sempra has a 1 year low of $66.40 and a 1 year high of $86.13. 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 stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $82.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $77.71. The firm has a market cap of $54.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.75.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by ($0.03). Sempra had a return on equity of 8.58% and a net margin of 22.31%. The business had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.94 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast 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 was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 26th were paid a dividend of $0.62 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 26th. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.89%. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.