Sempra (NYSE:SRE) Cut to “Neutral” at The Goldman Sachs Group

The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Sempra (NYSE:SRE) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research note published on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $76.00 price target on the utilities provider’s stock, down from their prior price target of $99.00.

SRE has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Sempra from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Sempra from $99.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Sempra from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.54.

Sempra Stock Performance

Sempra stock opened at $71.50 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.52. The company has a market capitalization of $45.29 billion, a PE ratio of 15.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $83.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $84.70. Sempra has a fifty-two week low of $64.89 and a fifty-two week high of $95.77.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company 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. Sempra’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Sempra Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.645 per share. This represents a $2.58 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.61%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 20th. This is a positive change from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. Sempra’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.11%.

Insider Transactions at Sempra

In other Sempra news, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.94, for a total value of $4,125,186.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2 shares in the company, valued at approximately $165.88. This trade represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 2,755 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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. The trade was a 16.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SRE. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its position in shares of Sempra by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 8,742 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $731,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Sempra by 8,093.4% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 52,520 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,392,000 after purchasing an additional 51,879 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Sempra by 17.8% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 17,804 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,489,000 after purchasing an additional 2,693 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Sempra by 20.0% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 51,521 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,289,000 after purchasing an additional 8,587 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arkadios Wealth Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of Sempra during the third quarter worth about $351,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.