Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. Has $967,000 Holdings in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. decreased its stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 2.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 11,023 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 332 shares during the period. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s holdings in Sempra were worth $967,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dixon Fnancial Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Sempra in the 4th quarter valued at about $205,000. Williams & Novak LLC bought a new stake in Sempra in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $386,000. Sterling Investment Counsel LLC acquired a new stake in Sempra in the fourth quarter worth $201,000. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Sempra by 28.7% during the fourth quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 86,390 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $7,578,000 after purchasing an additional 19,268 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mariner Investment Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Sempra in the 4th quarter valued at $614,000. Institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 23,713 shares of Sempra stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,041,677.10. This trade represents a 67.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.24% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on SRE. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Sempra from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Barclays cut their price objective on Sempra from $99.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Sempra from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Sempra from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $98.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Sempra currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $91.20.

Sempra Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:SRE opened at $82.09 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $87.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $84.28. Sempra has a one year low of $66.40 and a one year high of $95.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.52 and a quick ratio of 0.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $51.99 billion, a PE ratio of 18.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.78.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.05 by ($0.16). Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. The company had revenue of $2.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.08 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th were paid a $0.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.02%. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.