DLK Investment Management LLC Boosts Stock Position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

DLK Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 19.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,527 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,497 shares during the period. DLK Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Sempra were worth $1,888,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Sempra by 19.7% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,757,553 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $133,679,000 after acquiring an additional 289,731 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Sempra by 7.4% during the second quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 15,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,198,000 after purchasing an additional 1,089 shares during the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. increased its position in shares of Sempra by 6.0% during the second quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 3,907 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $297,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Sempra by 41.0% during the second quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,347 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $559,000 after purchasing an additional 2,136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ensign Peak Advisors Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Sempra by 21.0% in the 2nd quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 112,645 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $8,568,000 after purchasing an additional 19,575 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Sempra

In related news, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 23,713 shares of Sempra stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.09, for a total transaction of $2,207,443.17. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 11,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,041,677.10. The trade was a 67.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on SRE shares. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Sempra in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $98.00 target price on the stock. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Sempra from $89.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Sempra from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Sempra from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $85.00 to $98.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Sempra currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $91.60.

Sempra Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of Sempra stock opened at $85.24 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $53.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.78. Sempra has a 52-week low of $66.40 and a 52-week high of $95.77. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $88.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $83.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.16). The business had revenue of $2.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.54 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.08 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Sempra will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Dividend Announcement

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

Sempra Company 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.