Sempra to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.62 (NYSE:SRE)

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 7th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be given a dividend of 0.62 per share by the utilities provider on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.76%.

Sempra has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.4% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 21 consecutive years. Sempra has a dividend payout ratio of 48.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Sempra to earn $5.13 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 48.3%.

Sempra Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of SRE stock traded up $1.50 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $89.76. The stock had a trading volume of 5,083,284 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,891,746. Sempra has a 12-month low of $66.40 and a 12-month high of $90.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.46 and a quick ratio of 0.41. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $83.26 and its two-hundred day moving average is $79.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $56.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.75.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by ($0.17). Sempra had a return on equity of 8.58% and a net margin of 22.31%. The business had revenue of $2.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.54 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.08 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Sempra will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on SRE. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Sempra from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Sempra from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Sempra from $87.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Sempra in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $94.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.00.

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.