Evercore ISI Begins Coverage on Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE)

Key Points

• Sempra Energy has been upgraded to a "strong-buy" rating by Evercore ISI, signaling strong confidence in the company's stock performance.
• Several analysts have revised their target prices for Sempra Energy, with the average target now at $86.09, indicating potential upside from recent trading levels.
• The company's recent earnings report showed an EPS of $0.89, surpassing analysts' expectations, despite a slight revenue decline compared to last year.

Equities research analysts at Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE - Get Free Report) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage set an "outperform" rating on the utilities provider's stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Sempra Energy from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $93.00 target price (up from $86.00) on shares of Sempra Energy in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $80.00 target price (up from $70.00) on shares of Sempra Energy in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Sempra Energy from $86.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "hold (c+)" rating on shares of Sempra Energy in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $86.09.

Sempra Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SRE opened at $93.98 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $61.32 billion, a PE ratio of 22.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.66. Sempra Energy has a twelve month low of $61.90 and a twelve month high of $95.77. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $83.70 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $77.63.

Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.07. Sempra Energy had a net margin of 20.28% and a return on equity of 8.42%. The firm had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.35 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.89 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Sempra Energy will post 4.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Caroline Ann Winn sold 5,114 shares of Sempra Energy stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.01, for a total value of $419,399.14. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 39,380 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,229,553.80. The trade was a 11.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kevin C. Sagara sold 28,864 shares of Sempra Energy stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.21, for a total transaction of $2,430,637.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 15,475 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,303,149.75. The trade was a 65.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 49,987 shares of company stock valued at $4,267,870 over the last three months. 0.27% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Sempra Energy

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Sempra Energy by 3.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,328,942 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $5,025,777,000 after acquiring an additional 2,090,840 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Sempra Energy by 26.8% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 48,686,047 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $3,474,236,000 after acquiring an additional 10,278,893 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Sempra Energy by 3.7% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 34,380,068 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $2,626,827,000 after acquiring an additional 1,214,931 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Sempra Energy by 3.9% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,036,572 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,058,214,000 after acquiring an additional 525,750 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Newport Trust Company LLC boosted its holdings in Sempra Energy by 0.3% in the first quarter. Newport Trust Company LLC now owns 13,331,160 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $951,312,000 after acquiring an additional 41,104 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.65% of the company's stock.

About Sempra Energy

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.