7,582 Shares in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) Purchased by BW Gestao de Investimentos Ltda.

BW Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. bought a new position in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 7,582 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $665,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Sempra by 633.4% during the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 29,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,624,000 after acquiring an additional 25,838 shares during the last quarter. L & S Advisors Inc lifted its stake in Sempra by 52.6% in the fourth quarter. L & S Advisors Inc now owns 41,601 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,649,000 after purchasing an additional 14,338 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Sempra by 8.8% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,428,132 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $286,695,000 after acquiring an additional 278,183 shares during the last quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Sempra by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,071,091 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $93,956,000 after purchasing an additional 26,821 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. grew its holdings in Sempra by 11.7% in the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 9,479 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $831,000 after acquiring an additional 990 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Cynthia J. Warner acquired 700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $70.65 per share, with a total value of $49,455.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,759 shares in the company, valued at approximately $618,823.35. This represents a 8.69 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 2,755 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.93, for a total value of $225,717.15. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 13,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,139,236.65. The trade was a 16.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have acquired 9,319 shares of company stock worth $651,676. 0.27% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Sempra Stock Up 1.1 %

SRE opened at $75.52 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $70.51 and its 200 day moving average is $80.85. Sempra has a fifty-two week low of $61.90 and a fifty-two week high of $95.77. The stock has a market cap of $49.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.52.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.03. Sempra had a net margin of 22.63% and a return on equity of 8.06%. The firm had revenue of $3.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.73 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.13 earnings per share. Sempra’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 20th were paid a dividend of $0.645 per share. This is an increase from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 20th. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.42%. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio is presently 58.37%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Sempra from $92.00 to $78.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Sempra from $93.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Sempra from $77.00 to $75.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Argus lowered Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Barclays downgraded Sempra from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $95.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $80.54.

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.