Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC Sells 3,956 Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC decreased its position in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE - Free Report) by 81.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 926 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 3,956 shares during the quarter. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC's holdings in Sempra were worth $81,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Eastern Bank bought a new position in shares of Sempra during the third quarter valued at $28,000. Hollencrest Capital Management raised its position in Sempra by 250.0% during the 3rd quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management now owns 378 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 270 shares during the last quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. lifted its holdings in Sempra by 225.6% during the 4th quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 433 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. LRI Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Sempra by 180.4% in the 3rd quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 443 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 285 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mather Group LLC. increased its stake in shares of Sempra by 35.5% in the third quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 740 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $62,000 after buying an additional 194 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.65% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Sempra

In related news, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 23,713 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.09, for a total transaction of $2,207,443.17. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,190 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,041,677.10. This trade represents a 67.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company's stock.

Sempra Stock Up 1.5 %

SRE stock traded up $1.25 during trading on Friday, reaching $85.24. 3,627,955 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,950,581. The firm's 50 day moving average is $88.50 and its 200 day moving average is $83.86. The firm has a market cap of $53.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.78. 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 has a twelve month low of $66.40 and a twelve month high of $95.77.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.16). The firm had revenue of $2.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.54 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. Sempra's revenue for the quarter was down 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.08 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Sempra Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th were issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 5th. Sempra's dividend payout ratio is currently 54.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on SRE shares. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Sempra in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $98.00 price objective on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Sempra from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Sempra from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $85.00 to $98.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Sempra from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Sempra currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $91.60.

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.