Sempra Energy $SRE Shares Sold by Baxter Bros Inc.

Baxter Bros Inc. decreased its position in shares of Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) by 16.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,800 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 550 shares during the quarter. Baxter Bros Inc.’s holdings in Sempra Energy were worth $212,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Sempra Energy by 1.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,238,102 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,584,032,000 after purchasing an additional 1,220,047 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Sempra Energy by 26.8% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,686,047 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,474,236,000 after purchasing an additional 10,278,893 shares during the period. Newport Trust Company LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Sempra Energy by 0.3% during the first quarter. Newport Trust Company LLC now owns 13,331,160 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $951,312,000 after purchasing an additional 41,104 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Sempra Energy by 4.0% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,520,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $536,671,000 after purchasing an additional 291,026 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Sempra Energy by 12.4% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,489,903 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $534,479,000 after acquiring an additional 823,663 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SRE has been the subject of several recent research reports. Evercore ISI set a $105.00 price target on Sempra Energy and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Sempra Energy in a research report on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Sempra Energy from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Barclays lifted their price target on Sempra Energy from $71.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price target on Sempra Energy from $86.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Sempra Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $86.09.

Sempra Energy Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of SRE opened at $93.36 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a current ratio of 0.48. Sempra Energy has a one year low of $61.90 and a one year high of $95.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $60.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.55, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.66. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $83.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $77.74.

Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.07. Sempra Energy had a return on equity of 8.42% and a net margin of 20.28%.The firm had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.35 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.89 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Sempra Energy will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 1st will be given a dividend of $0.645 per share. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 1st. Sempra Energy’s payout ratio is presently 62.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Sempra Energy news, Director Kevin C. Sagara sold 14,433 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.50, for a total transaction of $1,291,753.50. Following the transaction, the director owned 1,042 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $93,259. The trade was a 93.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Caroline Ann Winn sold 5,114 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.01, for a total value of $419,399.14. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 39,380 shares in the company, valued at $3,229,553.80. This trade represents a 11.49% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 49,987 shares of company stock worth $4,267,870. 0.27% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.