Advisors Asset Management Inc. Sells 27,418 Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Advisors Asset Management Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 29.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 66,423 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 27,418 shares during the quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Sempra were worth $5,555,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Sempra by 11.9% in the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 29,857 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,145,000 after purchasing an additional 3,165 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its position in Sempra by 8.3% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 9,034 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $649,000 after acquiring an additional 690 shares during the period. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC lifted its position in Sempra by 26.5% during the 1st quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC now owns 3,874 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $281,000 after acquiring an additional 811 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co. boosted its stake in Sempra by 20.5% during the first quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 3,537 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $254,000 after acquiring an additional 601 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Sempra in the first quarter worth about $96,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on SRE shares. Evercore ISI upped 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. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Sempra from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Sempra from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Sempra in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $98.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on shares of Sempra in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $94.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.00.

Sempra Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of Sempra stock opened at $94.69 on Friday. Sempra has a 1-year low of $66.40 and a 1-year high of $94.86. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $85.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $80.49. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $59.98 billion, a PE ratio of 20.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.75.

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

Sempra Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th will be issued a $0.62 dividend. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio is 54.63%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Sempra news, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 23,713 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.09, for a total value of $2,207,443.17. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 11,190 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,041,677.10. This represents a 67.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.24% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.