Natixis Advisors LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Sempra Energy $SRE

Natixis Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) by 29.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 495,504 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 208,160 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Sempra Energy were worth $44,585,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in SRE. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Sempra Energy by 14.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 75,725,594 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,813,784,000 after buying an additional 9,396,652 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Sempra Energy during the second quarter valued at approximately $701,649,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Sempra Energy by 106.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 10,428,007 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $938,325,000 after buying an additional 5,374,277 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in Sempra Energy by 786.1% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,957,399 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $224,082,000 after buying an additional 2,623,637 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp raised its position in Sempra Energy by 809.5% in the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 2,750,891 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $208,435,000 after acquiring an additional 2,448,415 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on SRE. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $101.00 price target on shares of Sempra Energy in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $99.00 price objective (up from $80.00) on shares of Sempra Energy in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Sempra Energy in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Barclays set a $95.00 price target on Sempra Energy and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $100.00 price target (up from $96.00) on shares of Sempra Energy in a research report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $100.00.

Insider Activity at Sempra Energy

In other news, CFO Karen L. Sedgwick sold 4,872 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total value of $451,049.76. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 39,029 shares in the company, valued at $3,613,304.82. The trade was a 11.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.27% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Sempra Energy Stock Performance

SRE opened at $93.49 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $90.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $89.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.59 and a quick ratio of 1.57. The firm has a market cap of $61.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.87, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 0.73. Sempra Energy has a 1-year low of $61.90 and a 1-year high of $97.44.

Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $1.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.16. Sempra Energy had a net margin of 13.27% and a return on equity of 8.22%. The firm had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.82 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.50 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Sempra Energy will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.6575 per share. This is a boost from Sempra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. This represents a $2.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 19th. Sempra Energy’s payout ratio is 93.48%.

About Sempra Energy

Sempra Energy is a San Diego–based energy infrastructure company that develops, owns and operates businesses delivering electricity and natural gas. Its operations include regulated utility services that provide electric and gas distribution to residential, commercial and industrial customers, as well as non‑regulated infrastructure businesses that develop and manage large-scale energy assets.

The company’s product and service portfolio spans electricity and natural gas delivery, transmission and storage, liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities, power generation and electric transmission projects.