Vontobel Holding Ltd. Has $901,000 Stock Holdings in Sempra Energy $SRE

Vontobel Holding Ltd. lessened its stake in Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE - Free Report) by 22.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 11,888 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 3,483 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd.'s holdings in Sempra Energy were worth $901,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System increased its stake in Sempra Energy by 9.3% in the 2nd quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 619,453 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $46,936,000 after buying an additional 52,668 shares during the period. Ignite Planners LLC increased its stake in Sempra Energy by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Ignite Planners LLC now owns 12,396 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $970,000 after buying an additional 371 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System increased its stake in Sempra Energy by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 34,400 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $2,606,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Independent Solutions Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Sempra Energy by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Independent Solutions Wealth Management LLC now owns 26,218 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,987,000 after buying an additional 609 shares during the period. Finally, 626 Financial LLC acquired a new position in Sempra Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $210,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SRE has been the topic of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Sempra Energy from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Evercore ISI set a $105.00 price target on shares of Sempra Energy and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating and set a $93.00 price target (up previously from $86.00) on shares of Sempra Energy in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating and set a $80.00 price target (up previously from $70.00) on shares of Sempra Energy in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Sempra Energy from $71.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 26th. 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, Sempra Energy currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $86.09.

Insider Buying and Selling at Sempra Energy

In other Sempra Energy news, Director Kevin C. Sagara sold 14,433 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $89.50, for a total value of $1,291,753.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 1,042 shares of the company's stock, valued at $93,259. This represents a 93.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Caroline Ann Winn sold 5,114 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.01, for a total transaction of $419,399.14. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 39,380 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,229,553.80. This trade represents a 11.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 49,987 shares of company stock valued at $4,267,870 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.27% of the company's stock.

Sempra Energy Stock Performance

NYSE:SRE opened at $90.15 on Monday. Sempra Energy has a 1 year low of $61.90 and a 1 year high of $95.77. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $84.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $78.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $58.82 billion, a PE ratio of 21.78, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.66.

Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE - Get Free Report) last posted its 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. Sempra Energy had a net margin of 20.28% and a return on equity of 8.42%. The business had revenue of $3 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.35 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.89 EPS. Sempra Energy's revenue was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Sempra Energy will post 4.76 EPS for the current year.

Sempra Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 1st will be issued a $0.645 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 1st. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. Sempra Energy's dividend payout ratio is 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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