4,052 Shares in Sempra Energy $SRE Bought by Occidental Asset Management LLC

Key Points

• Occidental Asset Management LLC purchased 4,052 shares of Sempra Energy, valued at approximately $307,000, indicating growing interest from institutional investors in the utilities sector.
• Insider sales included SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque and Director Kevin C. Sagara, together selling over 30,000 shares, which raised concerns about insider confidence in the stock's performance.
• Sempra Energy reported earnings of $0.89 per share, exceeding analysts' expectations, but the quarterly revenue of $3 billion fell short of forecasts, reflecting mixed performance factors for the company.

Occidental Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 4,052 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $307,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mattson Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Sempra Energy in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Pingora Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Sempra Energy by 48.3% in the 1st quarter. Pingora Partners LLC now owns 430 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Sempra Energy in the first quarter worth $38,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Sempra Energy in the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Finally, Eastern Bank raised its holdings in shares of Sempra Energy by 73.7% during the first quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 580 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 1,576 shares of Sempra Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total value of $126,080.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 15,600 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,248,000. The trade was a 9.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kevin C. Sagara sold 28,864 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.21, for a total value of $2,430,637.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 15,475 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,303,149.75. This represents a 65.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 35,554 shares of company stock worth $2,976,117. Corporate insiders own 0.27% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SRE has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Sempra Energy from $71.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $80.00 target price (up from $70.00) on shares of Sempra Energy in a report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Sempra Energy in a report on Thursday, August 21st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $81.27.

Sempra Energy Trading Up 4.4%

Shares of SRE stock opened at $86.02 on Wednesday. Sempra Energy has a 1-year low of $61.90 and a 1-year high of $95.77. The company has a market cap of $56.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.78, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.48 and a quick ratio of 0.41. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $81.54 and a 200-day simple moving average of $76.24.

Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.35 billion. Sempra Energy had a net margin of 20.28% and a return on equity of 8.42%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.89 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Sempra Energy will post 4.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 1st will be issued a $0.645 dividend. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 1st. Sempra Energy's payout ratio is presently 62.32%.

Sempra Energy 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.

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