Baxter Bros Inc. Acquires New Shares in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Baxter Bros Inc. acquired a new stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 3,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $301,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Eastern Bank purchased a new position in Sempra in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Sempra during the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Sempra during the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. Financial Connections Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Sempra during the 2nd quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, SouthState Corp grew its position in shares of Sempra by 900.0% during the 2nd quarter. SouthState Corp now owns 470 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 423 shares in the last quarter. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Sempra Stock Performance

Sempra stock opened at $81.65 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. The company has a market capitalization of $51.70 billion, a PE ratio of 17.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.75. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $83.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $78.68. Sempra has a twelve month low of $66.40 and a twelve month high of $86.57.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.92 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.58% and a net margin of 22.31%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.94 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Sempra will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Sempra Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 26th were paid a $0.62 dividend. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.04%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 26th. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.99%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on SRE shares. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Sempra in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $94.00 price target for the company. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Sempra from $83.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Sempra from $87.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Sempra from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Sempra from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $87.55.

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.