Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to “Sell”

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note published on Saturday.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $101.00 price objective on shares of Sempra Energy in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $99.00 target price (up from $80.00) on shares of Sempra Energy in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Sempra Energy from $112.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $100.00 price target (up from $96.00) on shares of Sempra Energy in a research report on Friday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Sempra Energy in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $100.00.

Sempra Energy Stock Down 1.3%

SRE stock opened at $92.71 on Friday. Sempra Energy has a fifty-two week low of $61.90 and a fifty-two week high of $97.44. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $90.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $89.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 1.57 and a current ratio of 1.59. The company has a market capitalization of $60.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 0.73.

Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $1.28 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.16. Sempra Energy had a return on equity of 8.22% and a net margin of 13.27%.The company had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.82 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.50 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Sempra Energy will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sempra Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 19th will be paid a $0.6575 dividend. This is an increase from Sempra Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. This represents a $2.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 19th. Sempra Energy’s payout ratio is currently 95.29%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sempra Energy

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of SRE. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Sempra Energy during the 4th quarter valued at about $914,924,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Sempra Energy by 14.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 75,725,594 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,813,784,000 after buying an additional 9,396,652 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Sempra Energy by 106.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 10,428,007 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $938,325,000 after buying an additional 5,374,277 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of Sempra Energy by 9.2% during the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 54,071,206 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,865,115,000 after buying an additional 4,572,312 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of Sempra Energy by 17.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 22,330,091 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,971,524,000 after buying an additional 3,250,783 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

About Sempra Energy

Sempra Energy is a San Diego–based energy infrastructure company that develops, owns and operates businesses delivering electricity and natural gas. Its operations include regulated utility services that provide electric and gas distribution to residential, commercial and industrial customers, as well as non‑regulated infrastructure businesses that develop and manage large-scale energy assets.

The company’s product and service portfolio spans electricity and natural gas delivery, transmission and storage, liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities, power generation and electric transmission projects.