Sustainable Insight Capital Management LLC Takes $376,000 Position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Sustainable Insight Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 4,496 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $376,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. lifted its position in shares of Sempra by 12.1% during the first quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 24,563 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,764,000 after buying an additional 2,645 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in Sempra by 24.9% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 9,896 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $711,000 after acquiring an additional 1,970 shares in the last quarter. Forsta AP Fonden grew its holdings in Sempra by 13.7% in the first quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 117,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,418,000 after purchasing an additional 14,100 shares during the last quarter. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Sempra during the first quarter worth $3,900,000. Finally, Atomi Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Sempra by 79.4% during the first quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 6,758 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $485,000 after purchasing an additional 2,992 shares in the last quarter. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Sempra Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of SRE stock opened at $91.25 on Friday. Sempra has a twelve month low of $66.40 and a twelve month high of $91.88. The stock has a market cap of $57.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.75. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $83.60 and a 200 day moving average of $79.21. The company has a current ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by ($0.17). Sempra had a return on equity of 8.01% and a net margin of 22.63%. The firm had revenue of $2.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.08 EPS. Sempra’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Sempra will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Sempra Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be issued a $0.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. Sempra’s payout ratio is 54.63%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Sempra from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Sempra from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Sempra from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Sempra from $87.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.00.

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.