Sempra (NYSE:SRE) Shares Bought by Alliancebernstein L.P.

Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE - Free Report) by 24.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 828,756 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 163,268 shares during the quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. owned approximately 0.13% of Sempra worth $72,698,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Sempra by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,018,055 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $5,527,944,000 after buying an additional 490,269 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Sempra by 11.9% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 38,407,154 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $3,369,076,000 after purchasing an additional 4,082,261 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Sempra by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 32,940,620 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $2,774,974,000 after purchasing an additional 1,539,026 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Sempra during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,535,000,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Sempra by 1.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,761,872 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,063,007,000 after purchasing an additional 145,873 shares in the last quarter. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Remove Ads

Sempra Stock Up 2.8 %

SRE stock traded up $1.79 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $65.70. The company had a trading volume of 1,520,419 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,532,608. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $75.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $82.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.52. The company has a market capitalization of $42.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.65. Sempra has a fifty-two week low of $61.90 and a fifty-two week high of $95.77.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.73 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.13 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.645 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 20th. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.93%. This is an increase from Sempra's previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. Sempra's payout ratio is presently 58.37%.

Insider Activity at Sempra

In related news, Director Michael N. Mears purchased 1,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $67.70 per share, for a total transaction of $67,700.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 5,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $338,500. The trade was a 25.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.94, for a total transaction of $4,125,186.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $165.88. This trade represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have acquired 9,319 shares of company stock valued at $651,676 and have sold 57,309 shares valued at $4,694,019. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SRE has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Sempra from $92.00 to $78.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Guggenheim reduced their price target on shares of Sempra from $95.00 to $87.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of Sempra from $92.00 to $76.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Sempra from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded Sempra from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their target price for the company from $95.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $81.33.

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.