Sempra (NYSE:SRE) Given New $86.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) had its price target upped by Morgan Stanley from $85.00 to $86.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 23.64% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on SRE. UBS Group downgraded shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $95.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $99.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Guggenheim decreased their target price on shares of Sempra from $95.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $77.00 target price (down from $96.00) on shares of Sempra in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Argus downgraded shares of Sempra from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.58.

Sempra Stock Performance

Shares of SRE opened at $69.56 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $78.36 and its 200 day moving average price is $83.57. Sempra has a 52 week low of $64.89 and a 52 week high of $95.77. The company has a market capitalization of $45.31 billion, a PE ratio of 15.32, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.52.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.03. Sempra had a net margin of 22.63% and a return on equity of 8.06%. The firm had revenue of $3.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.73 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.13 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Sempra will post 4.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Sempra

In other news, CEO Jeffrey W. Martin sold 49,737 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.94, for a total value of $4,125,186.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2 shares in the company, valued at approximately $165.88. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Michael N. Mears acquired 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $67.70 per share, with a total value of $67,700.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 5,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $338,500. This represents a 25.00 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders purchased a total of 9,319 shares of company stock worth $651,676 in the last ninety days. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sempra

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SRE. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Sempra in the 4th quarter valued at $1,535,000,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised 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 valued at $3,369,076,000 after buying an additional 4,082,261 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake 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 valued at $584,763,000 after buying an additional 2,758,037 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in shares of Sempra by 71.3% in 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 grew its holdings in shares of Sempra by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,978,605 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,587,181,000 after purchasing an additional 1,582,653 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.