First Trust Advisors LP Raises Holdings in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE - Free Report) by 6.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 851,826 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 48,926 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 0.13% of Sempra worth $74,722,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of SRE. Capital International Ltd. CA raised its position in Sempra by 44.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Ltd. CA now owns 130,544 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $11,451,000 after purchasing an additional 40,482 shares during the last quarter. Commerce Bank raised its position in Sempra by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 60,794 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $5,333,000 after purchasing an additional 1,412 shares during the last quarter. Capital Group Investment Management PTE. LTD. raised its position in Sempra by 40.5% during the 4th quarter. Capital Group Investment Management PTE. LTD. now owns 24,312 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $2,133,000 after purchasing an additional 7,006 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Sarl raised its position in Sempra by 48.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Sarl now owns 176,282 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $15,463,000 after purchasing an additional 57,315 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its position in Sempra by 9.3% during the 4th quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 882,472 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $77,362,000 after purchasing an additional 75,073 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.65% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on SRE. Guggenheim lowered their price target on Sempra from $95.00 to $87.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Sempra from $92.00 to $78.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Sempra from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. UBS Group lowered Sempra from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $95.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Barclays lowered Sempra from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $95.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $80.54.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 2,755 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.93, for a total value of $225,717.15. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 13,905 shares in the company, valued at $1,139,236.65. This represents a 16.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Justin Christopher Bird sold 4,817 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.23, for a total value of $343,114.91. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 19,778 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,408,786.94. This trade represents a 19.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have acquired 9,319 shares of company stock worth $651,676 and have sold 57,309 shares worth $4,694,019. 0.27% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Sempra Stock Performance

Shares of SRE stock traded up $0.23 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $74.75. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,122,952 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,721,994. The company has a 50 day moving average of $71.33 and a 200 day moving average of $81.13. The stock has a market cap of $48.73 billion, a PE ratio of 16.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. Sempra has a 12-month low of $61.90 and a 12-month high of $95.77.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.47 by $0.03. Sempra had a net margin of 22.63% and a return on equity of 8.06%. The business had revenue of $3.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.73 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.13 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 20th were paid a $0.645 dividend. This is an increase from Sempra's previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.45%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 20th. Sempra's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 58.37%.

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.