Sempra (NYSE:SRE) Price Target Lowered to $70.00 at Citigroup

Sempra (NYSE:SRE - Get Free Report) had its target price dropped by equities researchers at Citigroup from $93.00 to $70.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a "neutral" rating on the utilities provider's stock. Citigroup's price target indicates a potential upside of 0.68% from the company's current price.

SRE has been the topic of several other research reports. UBS Group lowered shares of Sempra from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $95.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Mizuho decreased their target price on Sempra from $92.00 to $76.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Sempra from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Barclays cut shares of Sempra from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and dropped their price target for the company from $95.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Sempra from $88.00 to $85.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $80.46.

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Sempra Stock Performance

Shares of Sempra stock traded up $1.22 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $69.53. 1,100,934 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,675,014. Sempra has a 12 month low of $61.90 and a 12 month high of $95.77. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $73.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $81.88. The company has a market capitalization of $45.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.65. 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 - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The utilities provider reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $3.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.73 billion. Sempra had a return on equity of 8.06% and a net margin of 22.63%. Sempra's quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.13 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Sempra will post 4.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Sempra

In other Sempra news, EVP Justin Christopher Bird sold 4,817 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.23, for a total transaction of $343,114.91. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,778 shares in the company, valued at $1,408,786.94. This represents a 19.59 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Alexander Lisa Larroque sold 2,755 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.93, for a total value of $225,717.15. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 13,905 shares in the company, valued at $1,139,236.65. This represents a 16.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders bought 9,319 shares of company stock valued at $651,676 and sold 57,309 shares valued at $4,694,019. 0.24% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Sempra

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Sempra by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,018,055 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $5,527,944,000 after acquiring an additional 490,269 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in 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. FMR LLC increased its position in Sempra by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 20,489,918 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,797,376,000 after purchasing an additional 1,511,313 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Sempra during the 4th quarter worth $1,535,000,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Sempra by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,072,966 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,143,248,000 after purchasing an additional 311,094 shares during the period. 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.