Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Increases Stock Holdings in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI boosted its stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 1.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 29,994 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 476 shares during the quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Sempra were worth $2,631,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Sempra by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,978,605 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,587,181,000 after purchasing an additional 1,582,653 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Sempra by 4.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 32,940,620 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,774,974,000 after buying an additional 1,539,026 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Sempra in the fourth quarter worth about $123,614,000. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its position in Sempra by 201.2% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 620,394 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $51,882,000 after acquiring an additional 414,406 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Unigestion Holding SA purchased a new position in shares of Sempra during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,023,000. 89.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Mizuho lowered their target price on Sempra from $92.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. UBS Group cut shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $95.00 to $78.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Sempra from $100.00 to $85.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and set a $77.00 price target (down from $96.00) on shares of Sempra in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of 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 report on Wednesday, February 26th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $81.50.

Sempra Price Performance

Shares of SRE opened at $68.70 on Wednesday. Sempra has a twelve month low of $64.89 and a twelve month high of $95.77. The company has a market capitalization of $44.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.76. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $80.68 and a 200 day moving average of $84.27. 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 posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.03. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. The business had revenue of $3.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.73 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.13 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be given a $0.645 dividend. This is a positive change from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 20th. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.76%. Sempra’s payout ratio is 58.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Sempra

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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2 shares in the company, valued at $165.88. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 2,755 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 13,905 shares in the company, valued at $1,139,236.65. This represents a 16.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

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.