Sempra (NYSE:SRE) Raises Dividend to $0.65 Per Share

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 25th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, March 20th will be given a dividend of 0.645 per share by the utilities provider on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $2.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.96%. This is a positive change from Sempra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.62.

Sempra has increased its dividend by an average of 4.1% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 21 years. Sempra has a payout ratio of 44.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Sempra to earn $5.14 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 48.2%.

Sempra Trading Up 0.1 %

Sempra stock opened at $87.20 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $84.29 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $84.98. 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 has a 12 month low of $66.40 and a 12 month high of $95.77. The stock has a market cap of $55.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.78.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 EPS 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 $4.90 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. Sempra’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.13 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Sempra will post 4.76 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Sempra from $87.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Sempra from $99.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Sempra from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $98.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, Sempra currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $91.20.

Insider Transactions at Sempra

In other news, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 2,755 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.93, for a total transaction of $225,717.15. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 13,905 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,139,236.65. This represents a 16.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were 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 directly owns 2 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $165.88. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.24% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.