Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Purchases 466 Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. increased its position in shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) by 1.3% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 37,172 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 466 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Sempra were worth $3,109,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its holdings in Sempra by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 13,452,912 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,023,228,000 after buying an additional 874,133 shares during the period. Zimmer Partners LP increased its stake in Sempra by 96.9% in the first quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 1,636,202 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $117,528,000 after acquiring an additional 805,084 shares during the period. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in Sempra in the first quarter valued at about $27,338,000. Natixis acquired a new position in Sempra in the first quarter worth about $26,871,000. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI bought a new position in Sempra during the second quarter worth about $23,056,000. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays increased their price objective on Sempra from $87.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Sempra in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $94.00 target price on the stock. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Sempra from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Sempra from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Sempra presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.00.

Sempra Price Performance

Shares of SRE stock opened at $92.19 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $58.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.31, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.75. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $84.31 and its 200-day moving average is $79.77. Sempra has a 1 year low of $66.40 and a 1 year high of $93.12.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.05 by ($0.16). The firm had revenue of $2.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.54 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.08 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th will be given a $0.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.69%. Sempra’s payout ratio is 54.63%.

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.