Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Buys 678 Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 9.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,516 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 678 shares during the quarter. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Sempra were worth $562,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SRE. PrairieView Partners LLC increased its position in Sempra by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. PrairieView Partners LLC now owns 376 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares during the period. Optimum Investment Advisors increased its position in Sempra by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors now owns 380 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in Sempra by 119.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 398 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares during the period. Monetary Management Group Inc. increased its position in Sempra by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. Monetary Management Group Inc. now owns 400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Finally, Essex Investment Management Co. LLC increased its position in Sempra by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 390 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 195 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SRE has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Sempra from $83.00 to $79.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Sempra from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Sempra from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH began coverage on shares of Sempra in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $81.50 target price on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $82.00 target price on shares of Sempra in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Sempra has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $82.14.

Insider Activity at Sempra

In other Sempra news, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 34,190 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.83, for a total value of $2,421,677.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2 shares in the company, valued at $141.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 34,190 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.83, for a total transaction of $2,421,677.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $141.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 50,703 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.92, for a total value of $3,595,856.76. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $141.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 156,622 shares of company stock valued at $11,089,713 over the last 90 days. 0.27% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Sempra Trading Down 2.5 %

Shares of SRE opened at $66.41 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $70.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $71.53. Sempra has a 12-month low of $63.75 and a 12-month high of $79.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.71.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.01 billion. Sempra had a net margin of 18.26% and a return on equity of 9.45%. Sempra’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.17 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.83 EPS for the current year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 21st were issued a $0.62 dividend. This is a boost from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 20th. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.73%. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.77%.

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.