Sempra Energy $SRE Shares Sold by Baxter Bros Inc.

Baxter Bros Inc. lessened its holdings in Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) by 16.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 550 shares during the period. Baxter Bros Inc.’s holdings in Sempra Energy were worth $212,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Jacobi Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Sempra Energy by 10.3% in the 1st quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 5,641 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $403,000 after buying an additional 526 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Sempra Energy by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 3,495,527 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $249,435,000 after acquiring an additional 229,045 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Sempra Energy by 21.6% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,656,805 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $260,950,000 after acquiring an additional 648,530 shares during the last quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Sempra Energy by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 2,182,448 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $155,739,000 after acquiring an additional 52,838 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Sempra Energy by 46.0% in the 1st quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 37,501 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,676,000 after purchasing an additional 11,811 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Sempra Energy

In related news, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 1,576 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total value of $126,080.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 15,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,248,000. This trade represents a 9.18% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kevin C. Sagara sold 28,864 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.21, for a total value of $2,430,637.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 15,475 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,303,149.75. The trade was a 65.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 49,987 shares of company stock valued at $4,267,870 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SRE has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Sempra Energy from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Evercore ISI set a $105.00 target price on Sempra Energy and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Sempra Energy in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $93.00 price objective (up from $86.00) on shares of Sempra Energy in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Sempra Energy from $71.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $86.09.

Sempra Energy Stock Performance

Shares of SRE stock opened at $93.36 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $60.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.66. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $83.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $77.74. Sempra Energy has a 12-month low of $61.90 and a 12-month high of $95.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93.

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

Sempra Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.645 per share. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 1st. Sempra Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 62.32%.

Sempra Energy 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.