Sempra Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.62 (NYSE:SRE)

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 7th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th will be given a dividend of 0.62 per share by the utilities provider on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.76%.

Sempra has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.4% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 21 consecutive years. Sempra has a dividend 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 Stock Up 1.7 %

SRE opened at $89.76 on Friday. Sempra has a 1-year low of $66.40 and a 1-year high of $90.16. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $83.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $79.00. The company has a current ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market cap of $56.83 billion, a PE ratio of 19.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.75.

Sempra (NYSE:SRE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by ($0.17). Sempra had a net margin of 22.31% and a return on equity of 8.58%. The business had revenue of $2.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.54 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.08 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Sempra will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on SRE shares. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Sempra in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $98.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Sempra from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Sempra from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Sempra from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Sempra from $87.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.00.

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.