GUNN & Co INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT INC. Invests $291,000 in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

GUNN & Co INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT INC. bought a new stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 3,900 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $291,000.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of SRE. WFA of San Diego LLC boosted its position in Sempra by 29.9% during the 3rd quarter. WFA of San Diego LLC now owns 2,439 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $166,000 after buying an additional 561 shares during the period. Meyer Handelman Co. raised its stake in Sempra by 100.0% during the third quarter. Meyer Handelman Co. now owns 68,696 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,673,000 after buying an additional 34,348 shares during the last quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board grew its position in Sempra by 114.4% in the 3rd quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 32,782 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,230,000 after purchasing an additional 17,491 shares during the period. Ausbil Investment Management Ltd grew its position in Sempra by 13.5% in the 4th quarter. Ausbil Investment Management Ltd now owns 172,129 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,863,000 after purchasing an additional 20,469 shares during the period. Finally, CUSHING ASSET MANAGEMENT LP dba NXG INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT purchased a new stake in Sempra during the 4th quarter valued at $9,715,000. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on SRE shares. Mizuho dropped their price target on Sempra from $83.00 to $79.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Sempra from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $76.00 to $84.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Sempra from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Sempra from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $82.00 target price on shares of Sempra in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.14.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Diana L. Day sold 3,937 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.21, for a total transaction of $280,353.77. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 18,145 shares in the company, valued at $1,292,105.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Sempra news, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 57,571 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.59, for a total transaction of $4,063,936.89. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,922 shares in the company, valued at $770,983.98. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Diana L. Day sold 3,937 shares of Sempra stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.21, for a total value of $280,353.77. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 18,145 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,292,105.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 122,432 shares of company stock worth $8,668,035 in the last 90 days. 0.27% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Sempra Price Performance

Shares of Sempra stock traded down $0.21 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $72.71. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,091,801 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,945,250. The company has a market cap of $45.96 billion, a PE ratio of 15.22, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 0.54. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $70.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $71.80. Sempra has a 12-month low of $63.75 and a 12-month high of $78.70.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.11 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $3.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.01 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 9.45% and a net margin of 18.26%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.17 EPS. Analysts expect that Sempra will post 4.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 21st were issued a $0.62 dividend. This is an increase from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.41%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 20th. Sempra’s payout ratio is currently 51.77%.

Sempra 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.