Harbor Investment Advisory LLC Trims Holdings in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Harbor Investment Advisory LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 37.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 296 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 179 shares during the quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Sempra were worth $26,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Sempra by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 34,324,893 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,870,591,000 after buying an additional 128,847 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Sempra by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 32,940,620 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,774,974,000 after buying an additional 1,539,026 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Sempra by 9.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,978,605 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,587,181,000 after purchasing an additional 1,582,653 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in Sempra by 6.9% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 13,452,912 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,023,228,000 after purchasing an additional 874,133 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Sempra by 1.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,761,872 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,063,007,000 after purchasing an additional 145,873 shares during the last quarter. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Sempra

In related 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 transaction, the vice president now owns 11,190 shares in the company, valued at $1,041,677.10. This trade represents a 67.94 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.27% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on SRE. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays raised their price objective on Sempra from $89.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Morgan Stanley upgraded Sempra from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Sempra from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Sempra in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $98.00 price objective on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $91.60.

Sempra Trading Down 4.2 %

Shares of SRE stock opened at $82.86 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $88.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $84.06. Sempra has a fifty-two week low of $66.40 and a fifty-two week high of $95.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $52.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.78. 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 announced 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). Sempra had a net margin of 22.63% and a return on equity of 8.06%. The firm had revenue of $2.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.54 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.08 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Sempra will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th were given a $0.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.99%. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.63%.

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.