15,157 Shares in Sempra Energy $SRE Bought by Vise Technologies Inc.

Vise Technologies Inc. bought a new position in Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 15,157 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,148,000.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in SRE. Jacobi Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Sempra Energy by 10.3% in the first quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 5,641 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $403,000 after purchasing an additional 526 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Sempra Energy by 21.6% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,656,805 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $260,950,000 after buying an additional 648,530 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in Sempra Energy by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 3,495,527 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $249,435,000 after acquiring an additional 229,045 shares during the last quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Sempra Energy by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Energy Income Partners LLC now owns 2,182,448 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $155,739,000 after purchasing an additional 52,838 shares during the period. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Sempra Energy by 46.0% during the first quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 37,501 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,676,000 after acquiring an additional 11,811 shares in the last quarter. 89.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Kevin C. Sagara sold 28,864 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.21, for a total transaction of $2,430,637.44. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 15,475 shares in the company, valued at $1,303,149.75. The trade was a 65.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 4,322 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.55, for a total value of $400,001.10. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 11,325 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,048,128.75. This represents a 27.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 47,619 shares of company stock worth $4,122,392 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

Sempra Energy Stock Down 1.6%

Shares of Sempra Energy stock traded down $1.47 during trading on Thursday, reaching $91.00. The company had a trading volume of 107,482 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,307,990. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.48. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $89.06 and its 200-day moving average is $81.78. Sempra Energy has a fifty-two week low of $61.90 and a fifty-two week high of $95.77. The company has a market cap of $59.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.68.

Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.27. Sempra Energy had a return on equity of 8.42% and a net margin of 20.28%.The business had revenue of $3.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.99 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.89 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Sempra Energy will post 4.76 EPS for the current year.

Sempra Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.645 per share. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 11th. Sempra Energy’s payout ratio is presently 79.14%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on SRE. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Sempra Energy from $101.00 to $98.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Sempra Energy from $95.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Sempra Energy from $86.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 24th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Sempra Energy in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 target price (up previously from $70.00) on shares of Sempra Energy in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Sempra Energy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.42.

Sempra Energy 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.