Wall Street Zen Downgrades Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) to Sell

Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) was downgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on SRE. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $101.00 price objective on shares of Sempra Energy in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Barclays set a $95.00 target price on shares of Sempra Energy and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Sempra Energy in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Argus upgraded Sempra Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $99.00 price objective (up from $80.00) on shares of Sempra Energy in a research report on Monday, November 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $100.00.

Sempra Energy Trading Down 1.3%

SRE opened at $92.71 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.57, a current ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. Sempra Energy has a 52 week low of $61.90 and a 52 week high of $97.44. The business’s 50 day moving average is $90.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $89.18. The firm has a market cap of $60.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 0.73.

Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The utilities provider reported $1.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.82 billion. Sempra Energy had a return on equity of 8.22% and a net margin of 13.27%.The company’s revenue was down .2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.50 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Sempra Energy will post 4.76 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sempra Energy

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SRE. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Sempra Energy during the fourth quarter worth $914,924,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Sempra Energy by 14.2% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 75,725,594 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,813,784,000 after purchasing an additional 9,396,652 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Sempra Energy by 106.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 10,428,007 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $938,325,000 after purchasing an additional 5,374,277 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its position in shares of Sempra Energy by 9.2% in the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 54,071,206 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,865,115,000 after buying an additional 4,572,312 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Sempra Energy by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 22,330,091 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,971,524,000 after buying an additional 3,250,783 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.65% of the company’s stock.

Sempra Energy Company Profile

Sempra Energy is a San Diego–based energy infrastructure company that develops, owns and operates businesses delivering electricity and natural gas. Its operations include regulated utility services that provide electric and gas distribution to residential, commercial and industrial customers, as well as non?regulated infrastructure businesses that develop and manage large-scale energy assets.

The company’s product and service portfolio spans electricity and natural gas delivery, transmission and storage, liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities, power generation and electric transmission projects.