Holistic Financial Partners Buys New Stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Holistic Financial Partners purchased a new position in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 2,521 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $211,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position 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 buying an additional 874,133 shares during the period. Zimmer Partners LP raised its position in Sempra by 96.9% in the 1st quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 1,636,202 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $117,528,000 after purchasing an additional 805,084 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Sempra in the 1st quarter valued at $27,338,000. Natixis acquired a new stake in Sempra during the 1st quarter worth $26,871,000. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI purchased a new position in Sempra during the 2nd quarter worth $23,056,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on SRE shares. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Sempra in a report on Thursday, October 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $98.00 target price for the company. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Sempra from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Sempra from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Sempra from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Sempra from $87.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Sempra presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.00.

Sempra Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SRE opened at $92.19 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.52. Sempra has a one year low of $66.40 and a one year high of $93.12. The company’s fifty day moving average is $84.52 and its two-hundred day moving average is $80.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $58.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.31, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.75.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by ($0.16). The company had revenue of $2.78 billion during 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%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.08 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be given a dividend of $0.62 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.69%. Sempra’s payout ratio is 54.63%.

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.