Toronto Dominion Bank Has $19.87 Million Holdings in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Toronto Dominion Bank lowered its stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 19.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 226,474 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 53,470 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank’s holdings in Sempra were worth $19,866,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SRE. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Sempra in the fourth quarter worth about $1,535,000,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Sempra by 11.9% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 38,407,154 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,369,076,000 after buying an additional 4,082,261 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Sempra by 70.6% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,666,240 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $584,763,000 after buying an additional 2,758,037 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in shares of Sempra by 71.3% during the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,651,923 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $408,069,000 after purchasing an additional 1,936,865 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Sempra by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 20,489,918 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,797,376,000 after purchasing an additional 1,511,313 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group cut Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $99.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Mizuho cut their price objective on Sempra from $92.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays cut Sempra from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $95.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Guggenheim cut their price objective on Sempra from $95.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Sempra from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $80.62.

Insider Activity

In other Sempra news, Director Cynthia J. Warner purchased 700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $70.65 per share, for a total transaction of $49,455.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,759 shares in the company, valued at approximately $618,823.35. The trade was a 8.69% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Diana L. Day sold 8,015 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.26, for a total value of $595,193.90. Following the sale, the insider now owns 16,969 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,260,117.94. This trade represents a 32.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have purchased 9,319 shares of company stock worth $651,676. Company insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

Sempra Trading Up 1.5%

SRE stock opened at $78.85 on Wednesday. Sempra has a 1-year low of $61.90 and a 1-year high of $95.77. The firm has a market cap of $51.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.63. The business’s 50 day moving average is $72.61 and its 200-day moving average is $79.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.32 by $0.12. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. The company had revenue of $3.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.90 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.34 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 26th will be paid a $0.645 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 26th. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.27%. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.70%.

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.