Sempra (NYSE:SRE) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eight have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $81.50.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on SRE shares. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and issued a $77.00 target price (down from $96.00) on shares of Sempra in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Barclays downgraded Sempra from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $95.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Sempra from $92.00 to $78.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on shares of Sempra from $95.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Sempra from $92.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th.

Sempra Stock Down 1.6 %

Sempra stock opened at $67.84 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $79.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $84.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The stock has a market cap of $44.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.76. Sempra has a twelve month low of $64.89 and a twelve month high of $95.77.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.03. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. The company had revenue of $3.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.73 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.13 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Sempra will post 4.76 EPS for the current year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.645 per share. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.80%. This is a positive change from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 20th. Sempra’s payout ratio is presently 58.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Sempra

In other Sempra news, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of Sempra stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.94, for a total transaction of $4,125,186.78. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $165.88. The trade was a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 2,755 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.93, for a total value of $225,717.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 13,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,139,236.65. The trade was a 16.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders purchased 6,719 shares of company stock valued at $467,180 in the last quarter. 0.27% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SRE. Centaurus Financial Inc. boosted its stake in Sempra by 51.8% during the fourth quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 14,456 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,268,000 after buying an additional 4,936 shares during the last quarter. Mattson Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Sempra during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH boosted its position in shares of Sempra by 26.5% during the 4th quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH now owns 8,670 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $761,000 after acquiring an additional 1,815 shares during the last quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Sempra in the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in Sempra in the fourth quarter worth $30,462,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

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.