Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Sells 2,480 Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky decreased its position in Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 1.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 154,466 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 2,480 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Sempra were worth $11,543,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of SRE. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its stake in Sempra by 112.8% during the 3rd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 881 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 467 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Sempra by 565.3% in the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 300,640 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $20,453,000 after purchasing an additional 255,451 shares during the period. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC lifted its stake in shares of Sempra by 118.6% in the 3rd quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC now owns 6,261 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $426,000 after purchasing an additional 3,397 shares during the period. Kestra Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of Sempra by 53.2% in the 3rd quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 18,044 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,228,000 after purchasing an additional 6,263 shares during the period. Finally, Prudential PLC lifted its stake in shares of Sempra by 75.7% in the 3rd quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 43,824 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,981,000 after purchasing an additional 18,887 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Richard J. Mark purchased 1,925 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 17th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $77.97 per share, for a total transaction of $150,092.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,420 shares in the company, valued at $422,597.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.24% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on SRE. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Sempra from $77.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH lowered their price objective on shares of Sempra from $81.50 to $79.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. StockNews.com cut shares of Sempra from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $82.00 price objective on shares of Sempra in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Sempra from $79.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $82.00.

Sempra Price Performance

Shares of SRE stock traded down $0.17 on Friday, reaching $75.97. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,666,810 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,763,922. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $73.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $72.83. Sempra has a 1 year low of $63.75 and a 1 year high of $78.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. The company has a market capitalization of $47.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.74.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The utilities provider reported $1.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $3.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.58 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.95% and a net margin of 20.99%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 44.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.46 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 27th will be given a $0.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 27th. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.26%. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.93%.

Sempra 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.