KWB Wealth Purchases New Position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

KWB Wealth purchased a new stake in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 2,383 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $170,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SRE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Sempra by 8.8% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,428,132 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $286,695,000 after purchasing an additional 278,183 shares during the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new stake in shares of Sempra during the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,880,000. Spire Wealth Management boosted its stake in Sempra by 43.5% during the 4th quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 709 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $62,000 after acquiring an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. abrdn plc boosted its stake in Sempra by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. abrdn plc now owns 328,840 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $28,716,000 after acquiring an additional 25,054 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mather Group LLC. boosted its stake in Sempra by 39.1% during the 4th quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 1,029 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $90,000 after acquiring an additional 289 shares during the last quarter. 89.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Sempra

In related news, Director Michael N. Mears acquired 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $67.70 per share, with a total value of $67,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $338,500. The trade was a 25.00% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Pablo Ferrero purchased 2,600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $70.96 per share, for a total transaction of $184,496.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 15,649 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,110,453.04. This trade represents a 19.92% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders acquired 8,619 shares of company stock valued at $602,221. 0.27% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Sempra Stock Performance

NYSE:SRE opened at $76.45 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $73.54 and a 200-day moving average of $79.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $49.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. Sempra has a twelve month low of $61.90 and a twelve month high of $95.77.

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

Sempra Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 26th will be paid a $0.645 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 26th. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.37%. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.70%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SRE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Sempra from $93.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. UBS Group lowered shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $95.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $99.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Sempra from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Sempra from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $80.75.

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.