Demars Financial Group LLC Purchases New Position in Sempra Energy $SRE

Key Points

• Demars Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Sempra Energy, purchasing 6,297 shares valued at approximately $477,000.
• Several institutional investors have significantly increased their stakes in Sempra Energy, with Pingora Partners LLC boosting its holding by 48.3%.
• Sempra Energy reported earnings of $0.89 per share in their latest quarterly results, exceeding the consensus estimate, along with announcing a quarterly dividend of $0.645 per share.

Demars Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 6,297 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $477,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SRE. Pingora Partners LLC boosted its stake in Sempra Energy by 48.3% during the first quarter. Pingora Partners LLC now owns 430 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Sempra Energy by 230.8% in the 2nd quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 430 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Eastern Bank lifted its stake in shares of Sempra Energy by 73.7% in the 1st quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 580 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. Barrett & Company Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Sempra Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $51,000. Finally, Spire Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Sempra Energy by 44.7% in the 1st quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 1,026 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $73,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares during the last quarter. 89.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho raised their price objective on Sempra Energy from $86.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Evercore ISI set a $105.00 price objective on Sempra Energy and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $80.00 price objective (up from $70.00) on shares of Sempra Energy in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Barclays raised their price objective on Sempra Energy from $71.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Sempra Energy from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $86.09.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Sempra Energy news, Director Kevin C. Sagara sold 28,864 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.21, for a total transaction of $2,430,637.44. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 15,475 shares in the company, valued at $1,303,149.75. This trade represents a 65.10% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 1,576 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the senior vice president owned 15,600 shares in the company, valued at $1,248,000. The trade was a 9.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 49,987 shares of company stock worth $4,267,870 in the last ninety days. 0.27% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Sempra Energy Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of NYSE SRE opened at $91.26 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.48. The business's 50 day moving average price is $85.25 and its 200-day moving average price is $78.84. Sempra Energy has a fifty-two week low of $61.90 and a fifty-two week high of $95.77. The company has a market cap of $59.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.04, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.66.

Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.07. Sempra Energy had a return on equity of 8.42% and a net margin of 20.28%.The firm had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.89 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Sempra Energy will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 1st were issued a dividend of $0.645 per share. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 1st. Sempra Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.32%.

Sempra Energy Company 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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