National Bank of Canada FI Sells 90,931 Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

National Bank of Canada FI lowered its position in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 14.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 529,463 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 90,931 shares during the quarter. National Bank of Canada FI’s holdings in Sempra were worth $46,480,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SRE. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Sempra by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,018,055 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,527,944,000 after purchasing an additional 490,269 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Sempra by 11.9% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 38,407,154 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,369,076,000 after buying an additional 4,082,261 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Sempra by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 32,940,620 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,774,974,000 after acquiring an additional 1,539,026 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Sempra during the 4th quarter worth about $1,535,000,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Sempra by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,761,872 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,063,007,000 after acquiring an additional 145,873 shares in the last quarter. 89.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SRE has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Guggenheim decreased their price target on shares of Sempra from $95.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays lowered Sempra from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $95.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Mizuho dropped their target price on Sempra from $92.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Argus cut Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Sempra from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Five investment 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, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Pablo Ferrero acquired 2,600 shares of Sempra stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $70.96 per share, with a total value of $184,496.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,110,453.04. This represents a 19.92 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Justin Christopher Bird sold 4,817 shares of Sempra 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 directly owns 19,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,408,786.94. This represents a 19.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders acquired 9,319 shares of company stock valued at $651,676 and sold 57,309 shares valued at $4,694,019. 0.24% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Sempra Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE:SRE opened at $72.93 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $76.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $82.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.52. The company has a market capitalization of $47.51 billion, a PE ratio of 16.06, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.76. Sempra has a 52 week low of $64.89 and a 52 week high of $95.77.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $3.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.73 billion. Sempra had a net margin of 22.63% and a return on equity of 8.06%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.13 EPS. Analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 20th will be given a $0.645 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 20th. This is a positive change from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.54%. Sempra’s payout ratio is currently 58.37%.

Sempra 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.