BMO Capital Markets Has Lowered Expectations for Sempra (NYSE:SRE) Stock Price

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) had its price target decreased by equities research analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $92.00 to $78.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ target price indicates a potential upside of 8.32% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on SRE. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $99.00 to $76.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of Sempra from $92.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Sempra from $96.00 to $88.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Guggenheim decreased their target price on Sempra from $95.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.54.

Sempra Stock Up 2.0 %

SRE opened at $72.01 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.86, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.78. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $82.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $84.58. Sempra has a twelve month low of $64.89 and a twelve month high of $95.77. 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 announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $3.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.73 billion. Sempra had a net margin of 22.63% and a return on equity of 8.06%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.13 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of Sempra 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $165.88. The trade was a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 13,905 shares in the company, valued at $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

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Sempra in the fourth quarter worth $1,535,000,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Sempra by 11.9% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 38,407,154 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,369,076,000 after buying an additional 4,082,261 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Sempra by 70.6% in the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of Sempra by 71.3% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its position in shares of 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.