Hollencrest Capital Management Acquires 270 Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Hollencrest Capital Management boosted its stake in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 250.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 378 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 270 shares during the quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management’s holdings in Sempra were worth $32,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SRE. Summit Global Investments acquired a new stake in shares of Sempra in the 3rd quarter valued at $2,684,000. TFB Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Sempra in the third quarter worth about $221,000. Trinity Legacy Partners LLC raised its holdings in Sempra by 13.8% during the 3rd quarter. Trinity Legacy Partners LLC now owns 52,474 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,363,000 after purchasing an additional 6,379 shares during the last quarter. Advisor Resource Council lifted its position in Sempra by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Advisor Resource Council now owns 24,867 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,080,000 after purchasing an additional 442 shares during the period. Finally, James J. Burns & Company LLC bought a new position in shares of Sempra in the 3rd quarter valued at about $217,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Barclays increased their price target on Sempra from $87.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Sempra from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Bank of America began coverage on Sempra in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $94.00 target price on the stock. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Sempra from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.00.

Sempra Trading Up 1.7 %

NYSE:SRE opened at $91.25 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $83.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $79.21. Sempra has a fifty-two week low of $66.40 and a fifty-two week high of $91.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.52 and a quick ratio of 0.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $57.77 billion, a PE ratio of 20.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.75.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by ($0.17). Sempra had a net margin of 22.63% and a return on equity of 8.01%. The company had revenue of $2.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Sempra will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.63%.

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.