Analysts Set Sempra (NYSE:SRE) Price Target at $81.50

Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eight have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $81.50.

A number of research firms recently commented on SRE. Barclays lowered Sempra from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $95.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. UBS Group lowered Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $95.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $99.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Mizuho decreased their price target on Sempra from $92.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Sempra from $92.00 to $78.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th.

Insider Activity 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 stock was sold at an average price of $82.94, for a total transaction of $4,125,186.78. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2 shares in the company, valued at $165.88. The trade was a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction 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 Sempra 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 13,905 shares in the company, valued at $1,139,236.65. This represents a 16.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have purchased 6,719 shares of company stock worth $467,180. 0.27% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sempra

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Centaurus Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Sempra by 51.8% in the 4th quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 14,456 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,268,000 after acquiring an additional 4,936 shares during the last quarter. Mattson Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Sempra in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH increased its holdings in shares of Sempra by 26.5% in 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 bought a new stake in shares of Sempra in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in shares of Sempra in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,462,000. 89.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Sempra Trading Up 3.6 %

Shares of SRE stock opened at $70.30 on Friday. Sempra has a fifty-two week low of $64.89 and a fifty-two week high of $95.77. The stock has a market cap of $45.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.76. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $79.57 and a 200-day simple moving average of $84.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $3.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.73 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.13 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.645 per share. This is an increase from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 20th. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 58.37%.

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.