James J. Burns & Company LLC Invests $217,000 in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

James J. Burns & Company LLC acquired a new stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 2,596 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $217,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of SRE. Eastern Bank acquired a new stake in Sempra in the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Sempra during the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Sempra during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Financial Connections Group Inc. purchased a new position in Sempra in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, SouthState Corp grew its position in Sempra by 900.0% in the second quarter. SouthState Corp now owns 470 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 423 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Sempra Stock Performance

Shares of SRE opened at $80.81 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.46 and a quick ratio of 0.41. Sempra has a 12-month low of $66.40 and a 12-month high of $86.57. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $83.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $78.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $51.16 billion, a PE ratio of 17.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.75.

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

Sempra Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 26th were issued a $0.62 dividend. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 26th. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.99%.

About Sempra

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.