Sempra (SRE) To Go Ex-Dividend on September 26th

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, September 4th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 26th will be given a dividend of 0.62 per share by the utilities provider on Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 26th.

Sempra has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.4% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 21 consecutive years. Sempra has a payout ratio of 48.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Sempra to earn $5.13 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 48.3%.

Sempra Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of Sempra stock opened at $83.09 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.46 and a quick ratio of 0.41. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $78.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $74.99. The stock has a market cap of $52.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.75. Sempra has a 1-year low of $63.75 and a 1-year high of $84.28.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by ($0.03). Sempra had a return on equity of 8.58% and a net margin of 22.31%. The company had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.94 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Sempra will post 4.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Sempra

In other Sempra news, CAO Peter R. Wall sold 6,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.07, for a total transaction of $457,927.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 14,751 shares in the company, valued at $1,107,357.57. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on SRE. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH dropped their price objective on shares of Sempra from $81.50 to $79.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 29th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Sempra from $83.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Mizuho upped their price objective on Sempra from $79.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Sempra from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Sempra from $86.00 to $84.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Sempra has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $83.36.

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.