BankPlus Trust Department Invests $53,000 in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

BankPlus Trust Department purchased a new position in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $53,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in SRE. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Sempra by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 8,742 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $731,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Sempra by 8,093.4% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 52,520 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,392,000 after buying an additional 51,879 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Sempra by 17.8% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 17,804 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,489,000 after buying an additional 2,693 shares in the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Sempra by 18.8% in the 3rd quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 4,263 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $357,000 after buying an additional 674 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Sempra by 20.0% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 51,521 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,289,000 after buying an additional 8,587 shares in the last quarter. 89.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SRE has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Sempra from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $98.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Sempra from $99.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Sempra from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Sempra currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $91.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 2 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $165.88. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 2,755 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.93, for a total transaction of $225,717.15. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 13,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,139,236.65. This trade represents a 16.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Sempra Trading Down 18.9 %

NYSE SRE opened at $70.67 on Wednesday. Sempra has a 12 month low of $64.89 and a 12 month high of $95.77. The company has a 50-day moving average of $83.96 and a 200-day moving average of $84.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.52 and a quick ratio of 0.47. The company has a market cap of $44.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.78.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $3.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.73 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.13 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.645 per share. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.65%. This is an increase from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.63%.

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.