Brokerages Set Sempra (NYSE:SRE) Price Target at $85.00

Shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $85.42.

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on SRE. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Sempra from $83.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Sempra from $90.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Sempra from $81.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Sempra from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on Sempra in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $94.00 price target for the company.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sempra

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Centaurus Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Sempra by 9.8% in the second quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 7,896 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $601,000 after purchasing an additional 708 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in Sempra during the 2nd quarter worth about $199,000. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Sempra during the 2nd quarter worth about $523,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Sempra in the 2nd quarter valued at about $11,892,000. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Sempra by 6.9% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 13,452,912 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,023,228,000 after acquiring an additional 874,133 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Sempra Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:SRE opened at $81.91 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. The firm has a market cap of $51.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 0.75. Sempra has a 12 month low of $63.75 and a 12 month high of $84.38. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $80.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $76.19.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.92 by ($0.03). Sempra had a net margin of 22.31% and a return on equity of 8.58%. The company had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.94 earnings per share. Sempra’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 26th will be issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 26th. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.03%. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.99%.

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.