Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC lowered its stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 5.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 10,302 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 576 shares during the quarter. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Sempra were worth $904,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Lindbrook Capital LLC increased its stake in Sempra by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 2,410 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $211,000 after buying an additional 124 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Sempra by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 8,194 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $719,000 after acquiring an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle West Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Sempra by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Pinnacle West Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,585 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $227,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Sempra by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 2,639 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $232,000 after acquiring an additional 126 shares during the period. Finally, Avantax Planning Partners Inc. raised its holdings in Sempra by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Avantax Planning Partners Inc. now owns 7,423 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $651,000 after purchasing an additional 147 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Sempra news, Director Cynthia J. Warner purchased 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $70.65 per share, for a total transaction of $49,455.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 8,759 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $618,823.35. The trade was a 8.69% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Pablo Ferrero acquired 2,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $70.96 per share, for a total transaction of $184,496.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 15,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,110,453.04. The trade was a 19.92% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have bought 9,319 shares of company stock valued at $651,676 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on SRE. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Sempra from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. UBS Group downgraded Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $95.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Guggenheim cut their price objective on Sempra from $95.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays downgraded Sempra from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $95.00 to $72.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Sempra from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $80.77.

Sempra Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of SRE opened at $74.89 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.52 and a quick ratio of 0.47. Sempra has a 1-year low of $61.90 and a 1-year high of $95.77. The stock has a market cap of $48.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.63. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $71.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $80.33.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.12. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. The company had revenue of $3.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.90 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.34 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 20th were issued a $0.645 dividend. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.45%. This is a positive change from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 20th. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio is 56.70%.

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.