Sempra Energy $SRE Stock Holdings Decreased by Platinum Investment Management Ltd.

Platinum Investment Management Ltd. cut its stake in shares of Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) by 11.7% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,673 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 486 shares during the period. Platinum Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings in Sempra Energy were worth $278,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SRE. Pingora Partners LLC grew its position in Sempra Energy by 48.3% during the first quarter. Pingora Partners LLC now owns 430 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. grew its position in Sempra Energy by 230.8% during the second quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 430 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Sempra Energy during the first quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Eastern Bank grew its position in Sempra Energy by 73.7% during the first quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 580 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Harbor Investment Advisory LLC grew its position in Sempra Energy by 188.9% during the first quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 855 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 559 shares in the last quarter. 89.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on SRE shares. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Sempra Energy from $86.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $80.00 target price (up from $70.00) on shares of Sempra Energy in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Sempra Energy from $71.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 26th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $93.00 target price (up from $86.00) on shares of Sempra Energy in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Sempra Energy from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Sempra Energy currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $84.55.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Sempra Energy news, EVP Caroline Ann Winn sold 5,114 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.01, for a total transaction of $419,399.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 39,380 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,229,553.80. The trade was a 11.49% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kevin C. Sagara sold 28,864 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.21, for a total transaction of $2,430,637.44. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 15,475 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,303,149.75. This represents a 65.10% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 49,987 shares of company stock valued at $4,267,870 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

Sempra Energy Stock Performance

Shares of SRE opened at $89.22 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $58.21 billion, a PE ratio of 21.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.48 and a quick ratio of 0.41. Sempra Energy has a one year low of $61.90 and a one year high of $95.77. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $82.82 and its 200 day moving average price is $76.99.

Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.35 billion. Sempra Energy had a net margin of 20.28% and a return on equity of 8.42%. The business’s revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.89 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Sempra Energy will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 1st will be given a dividend of $0.645 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 1st. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. Sempra Energy’s payout ratio is currently 62.32%.

About Sempra Energy

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.