Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC Takes $295,000 Position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 3,947 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $295,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Monetary Management Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Sempra by 100.0% during the third quarter. Monetary Management Group Inc. now owns 400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC lifted its holdings in Sempra by 100.0% during the third quarter. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 390 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 195 shares during the period. Wolverine Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Sempra by 100.0% during the third quarter. Wolverine Asset Management LLC now owns 400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management lifted its holdings in Sempra by 85.6% during the third quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 412 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 190 shares during the period. Finally, Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Sempra during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on SRE. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Sempra from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Barclays boosted their target price on Sempra from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Sempra from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $76.00 to $84.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. StockNews.com lowered Sempra from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their target price on Sempra from $83.00 to $79.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $82.14.

Sempra Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SRE opened at $72.92 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $46.10 billion, a PE ratio of 15.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.70. Sempra has a fifty-two week low of $63.75 and a fifty-two week high of $78.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 0.54. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $70.63 and a 200-day moving average of $71.77.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.11 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.01 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 9.45% and a net margin of 18.26%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.17 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Sempra will post 4.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 21st were issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. This is a positive change from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 20th. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.40%. Sempra’s payout ratio is presently 51.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Sempra news, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 57,571 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.59, for a total value of $4,063,936.89. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 10,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $770,983.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, insider Diana L. Day sold 3,937 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.21, for a total transaction of $280,353.77. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 18,145 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,292,105.45. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Trevor I. Mihalik sold 57,571 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.59, for a total value of $4,063,936.89. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 10,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $770,983.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 122,432 shares of company stock worth $8,668,035. Insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

About Sempra

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.