Korea Investment CORP Sells 29,702 Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Korea Investment CORP lowered its position in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 6.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 440,509 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 29,702 shares during the period. Korea Investment CORP owned 0.07% of Sempra worth $38,641,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Sempra by 4.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 32,940,620 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,774,974,000 after purchasing an additional 1,539,026 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Sempra during the fourth quarter valued at $123,614,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new position in Sempra during the fourth quarter worth about $43,956,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Sempra by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,018,055 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,527,944,000 after buying an additional 490,269 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in shares of Sempra by 201.2% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 620,394 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $51,882,000 after purchasing an additional 414,406 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Sempra

In other news, Director Michael N. Mears purchased 1,000 shares of Sempra stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $67.70 per share, with a total value of $67,700.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 5,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $338,500. This trade represents a 25.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 2,755 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.93, for a total value of $225,717.15. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 13,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,139,236.65. This represents a 16.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders bought 9,319 shares of company stock valued at $651,676. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on SRE. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Sempra from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. UBS Group cut Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $95.00 to $78.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $99.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Sempra from $92.00 to $78.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.33.

Sempra Price Performance

Shares of Sempra stock opened at $70.15 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $77.54 and a 200 day moving average of $83.22. Sempra has a 52 week low of $64.89 and a 52 week high of $95.77. The company has a market cap of $45.70 billion, a PE ratio of 15.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.76. 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 (NYSE:SRE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.47 by $0.03. Sempra had a net margin of 22.63% and a return on equity of 8.06%. The firm had revenue of $3.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.73 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.13 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.645 per share. This is an increase from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 20th. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.68%. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio is 58.37%.

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.