Financial Contrast: Brookfield Infrastructure (NYSE:BIPC) & Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE)

Brookfield Infrastructure (NYSE:BIPC) and Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Brookfield Infrastructure and Sempra Energy’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Brookfield Infrastructure	N/A	N/A	N/A
Sempra Energy	16.70%	8.49%	2.98%

Risk & Volatility

Brookfield Infrastructure has a beta of 1.32, indicating that its share price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sempra Energy has a beta of 0.57, indicating that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

70.4% of Brookfield Infrastructure shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.7% of Sempra Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Sempra Energy shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Brookfield Infrastructure and Sempra Energy”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Brookfield Infrastructure	$3.70 billion	1.35	N/A	N/A	N/A
Sempra Energy	$13.70 billion	4.12	$1.84 billion	$3.45	25.05

Sempra Energy has higher revenue and earnings than Brookfield Infrastructure.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Brookfield Infrastructure and Sempra Energy, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Brookfield Infrastructure	2	0	0	0	1.00
Sempra Energy	0	4	10	1	2.80

Brookfield Infrastructure presently has a consensus price target of $50.00, indicating a potential upside of 22.79%. Sempra Energy has a consensus price target of $103.92, indicating a potential upside of 20.25%. Given Brookfield Infrastructure’s higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Brookfield Infrastructure is more favorable than Sempra Energy.

Dividends

Brookfield Infrastructure pays an annual dividend of $1.82 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. Sempra Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.63 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Sempra Energy pays out 76.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Brookfield Infrastructure has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years and Sempra Energy has raised its dividend for 22 consecutive years.

Summary

Sempra Energy beats Brookfield Infrastructure on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Brookfield Infrastructure

Brookfield Infrastructure Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates regulated natural gas transmission systems in Brazil. The company also engages in the regulated gas and electricity distribution operations in the United Kingdom; and electricity transmission and distribution, as well as gas distribution in Australia. It operates approximately 2,000 kilometers of natural gas transportation pipelines in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Minas Gerais; 4.3 million gas and electricity connections; and a global fleet of approximately 7 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) intermodal containers under long-term contracts. The company was incorporated in 2019 and is headquartered in New York, New York. Brookfield Infrastructure Corporation operates as a subsidiary of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P.

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. As of December 31, 2023, it offered electric services to approximately 3.6 million population and natural gas services to approximately 3.3 million population that covers 4,100 square miles. This segment owns and operates a natural gas distribution, transmission, and storage system that supplies natural gas. As of December 31, 2023, it serves a population of 21 million covering an area of 24,000 square miles. The Sempra Texas Utilities segment engages in the regulated electricity transmission and distribution. As of December 31, 2023, its transmission system included 18,298 circuit miles of transmission lines; 1,257 transmission and distribution substations; interconnection to 173 third-party generation facilities totaling 54,277 MW; and distribution system included approximately 4.0 million points of delivery and consisted of 125,116 miles of overhead and underground lines. The Sempra Infrastructure segment develops, builds, operates, and invests in energy infrastructure to help enable the energy transition in North American markets and worldwide. The company was formerly known as Sempra Energy and changed its name to Sempra in May 2023. Sempra was incorporated in 1996 and is based in San Diego, California.