Sempra (NYSE:SRE) Price Target Cut to $85.00 by Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) had its price objective reduced by Wells Fargo & Company from $88.00 to $85.00 in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on SRE. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Sempra from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and issued a $77.00 target price (down previously from $96.00) on shares of Sempra in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Sempra from $92.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Argus cut Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Guggenheim cut their price objective on Sempra from $95.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.33.

Sempra Trading Down 0.6 %

NYSE:SRE opened at $69.65 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $45.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.34, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.76. 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 company’s 50 day moving average price is $77.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $83.13. Sempra has a 52 week low of $64.89 and a 52 week high of $95.77.

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

Sempra Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be given a dividend of $0.645 per share. This is a boost from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 20th. Sempra’s payout ratio is presently 58.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Sempra news, Director Pablo Ferrero purchased 2,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $70.96 per share, with a total value of $184,496.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 15,649 shares in the company, valued at $1,110,453.04. The trade was a 19.92 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.94, for a total value of $4,125,186.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2 shares in the company, valued at $165.88. The trade was a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders bought 9,319 shares of company stock valued at $651,676. 0.24% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sempra

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Sempra in the 4th quarter valued at $1,535,000,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Sempra by 11.9% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 38,407,154 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,369,076,000 after purchasing an additional 4,082,261 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Sempra by 70.6% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,666,240 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $584,763,000 after buying an additional 2,758,037 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in Sempra by 71.3% during the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,651,923 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $408,069,000 after buying an additional 1,936,865 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its holdings in Sempra by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,978,605 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,587,181,000 after buying an additional 1,582,653 shares in the last quarter. 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.