First Horizon Advisors Inc. Sells 158 Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

First Horizon Advisors Inc. reduced its position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 16.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 799 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 158 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Sempra were worth $60,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Monetary Management Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Sempra by 100.0% during the third quarter. Monetary Management Group Inc. now owns 400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC boosted its stake in Sempra by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 390 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 195 shares during the last quarter. Wolverine Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Sempra by 100.0% in the third quarter. Wolverine Asset Management LLC now owns 400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Spire Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of Sempra by 85.6% in the third quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 412 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Sempra in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $82.00 price target on shares of Sempra in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of Sempra from $83.00 to $79.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Sempra from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Barclays boosted their target price on Sempra from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised Sempra from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $76.00 to $84.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $82.14.

Sempra Stock Up 1.8 %

SRE stock opened at $73.99 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $70.74 and a 200-day moving average of $71.86. Sempra has a fifty-two week low of $63.75 and a fifty-two week high of $78.70. The company has a market capitalization of $46.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.45, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 0.54.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $3.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.01 billion. Sempra had a net margin of 18.26% and a return on equity of 9.45%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.17 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Sempra will post 4.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 21st were given a $0.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 20th. This is a boost from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.35%. Sempra’s payout ratio is 51.77%.

Insider Activity at Sempra

In other Sempra news, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 57,571 shares of Sempra stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.59, for a total transaction of $4,063,936.89. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $770,983.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Sempra news, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 57,571 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.59, for a total value of $4,063,936.89. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 10,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $770,983.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Karen L. Sedgwick sold 5,158 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.21, for a total transaction of $367,301.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 43,024 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,063,739.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 122,432 shares of company stock worth $8,668,035. 0.27% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.