Sempra (NYSE:SRE) Lowered to Equal Weight Rating by Barclays

Barclays downgraded shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a report released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $72.00 price objective on the utilities provider’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $95.00.

SRE has been the subject of a number of other reports. UBS Group downgraded Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $95.00 to $78.00 in a report on Wednesday. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Sempra from $92.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $99.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Guggenheim dropped their price objective on Sempra from $95.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $84.54.

Sempra Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE:SRE opened at $71.99 on Thursday. Sempra has a fifty-two week low of $64.89 and a fifty-two week high of $95.77. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $83.43 and its 200 day moving average price is $84.75. The stock has a market cap of $45.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.78. 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 posted 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. The firm had revenue of $3.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.73 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. Sempra’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.13 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 20th will be given a $0.645 dividend. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.58%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 20th. This is a boost from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. Sempra’s payout ratio is 56.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2 shares in the company, valued at $165.88. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 2,755 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 13,905 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. 0.24% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Sempra

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Sempra by 33.4% during the fourth quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 9,798 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $866,000 after purchasing an additional 2,453 shares in the last quarter. Ameriflex Group Inc. acquired a new position in Sempra during the 4th quarter worth approximately $154,000. Putney Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Sempra during the 4th quarter worth approximately $90,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Sempra by 42.6% in the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 493,771 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $43,314,000 after buying an additional 147,495 shares during the period. Finally, Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Sempra in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,647,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

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.