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

Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SREGet Free Report) 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.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on SRE

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:SREGet Free Report) 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

(Get Free Report

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.

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Analyst Recommendations for Sempra (NYSE:SRE)

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