SRE · Utilities(gas & other services combined) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
Sempra reported revenue of $12.4 billion in fiscal 2025, after growing 2.2% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin widened from 23.4% in 2016 to 26.7%, and it earned 5.6% on its invested capital in the latest year. Of the $35.8 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 160.4% went back into the business and 33.0% to dividends; the share count rose 30.2%. On the accounting screens, it passes 4 of 8 Piotroski tests and its Altman Z'' of 1.89 is in the grey zone; none of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 202512.4B+2.2% a year over 9 years
Operating margin26.7%gross margin —
Return on invested capital5.6%8.4% on average over 5 years
Free cash flow after stock pay-6.1B-49.2% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA0.7×net debt 4.1B
Piotroski F-score4/8tests of improvement passed
Share counts are in today's shares. The SEC's filings restate only recent years after a split, so these jumps were read as splits and the older years scaled to match — otherwise per-share figures would compare different units:
2-for-1 before fiscal 2021.
Is it growing?
Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.
RevenueOperating income
05.0B10.0B15.0B
2016Revenue 10.2BOperating income 2.4B
2017Revenue 9.6BOperating income 1.9B
2018Revenue 9.4BOperating income 1.4B
2019Revenue 10.1BOperating income 2.8B
2020Revenue 10.3BOperating income 2.9B
2021Revenue 11.7BOperating income 2.0B
2022Revenue 13.7BOperating income 3.1B
2023Revenue 14.8BOperating income 4.6B
2024Revenue 11.8BOperating income 3.8B
2025Revenue 12.4BOperating income 3.3B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
-3.3%
+3.8%
+2.2%
Operating income
+2.7%
+3.0%
+3.8%
Net income
-4.9%
-14.9%
+3.3%
Earnings per share
-6.0%
-16.7%
+0.3%
Dividend per share
+2.8%
+4.1%
+6.7%
Shares
+1.1%
+2.3%
+3.0%
Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.
Does it earn more than its capital costs?
Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.
GrossOperatingNetFree cash flow
-50.0%-25.0%0.0%25.0%50.0%
2016Operating 23.4%Net 13.5%Free cash flow -18.7%
2017Operating 19.8%Net 2.7%Free cash flow -0.8%
2018Operating 14.4%Net 11.9%Free cash flow -0.3%
2019Operating 28.0%Net 23.3%Free cash flow -6.1%
2020Operating 27.8%Net 39.8%Free cash flow -20.2%
2021Operating 17.4%Net 11.3%Free cash flow -10.0%
2022Operating 22.3%Net 15.6%Free cash flow -30.7%
2023Operating 30.8%Net 20.7%Free cash flow -14.7%
2024Operating 31.8%Net 24.2%Free cash flow -28.0%
2025Operating 26.7%Net 14.8%Free cash flow -48.7%
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Return on invested capital
Return on invested capital
0.0%5.0%10.0%15.0%
2016Return on invested capital 12.7%
2017Return on invested capital 3.6%
2018Return on invested capital 6.4%
2019Return on invested capital 10.0%
2020Return on invested capital 10.2%
2021Return on invested capital 6.1%
2022Return on invested capital 7.3%
2023Return on invested capital 12.5%
2024Return on invested capital 10.4%
2025Return on invested capital 5.6%
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Economic profit
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
5.8%
Return on assets
1.7%
Asset turnover
0.11×
Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?
Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.
Net incomeFree cash flowAfter stock-based pay
-10.0B-5.0B05.0B
2016Net income 1.4BFree cash flow -1.9BAfter stock-based pay -2.0B
2017Net income 256.0MFree cash flow -80.0MAfter stock-based pay -162.0M
2018Net income 1.1BFree cash flow -28.0MAfter stock-based pay -111.0M
2019Net income 2.4BFree cash flow -620.0MAfter stock-based pay -695.0M
2020Net income 4.1BFree cash flow -2.1BAfter stock-based pay -2.2B
2021Net income 1.3BFree cash flow -1.2BAfter stock-based pay -1.2B
2022Net income 2.1BFree cash flow -4.2BAfter stock-based pay -4.3B
2023Net income 3.1BFree cash flow -2.2BAfter stock-based pay -2.3B
2024Net income 2.9BFree cash flow -3.3BAfter stock-based pay -3.4B
2025Net income 1.8BFree cash flow -6.0BAfter stock-based pay -6.1B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2016–2025
35.8B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 160%57.4B
Acquisitions 31%11.1B
Dividends 33%11.8B
Share buybacks 5%1.6B
More than it generated: funded with cash or new debt -129%-46.2B
Over the same years it paid 727.0M in stock. The share count rose 30.2%. 907.0M of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$-10.00$-5.00$0.00$5.00$10.00
2016Earnings per share $2.73Free cash flow per share $-3.79Dividend per share $1.37
2017Earnings per share $0.51Free cash flow per share $-0.16Dividend per share $1.50
2018Earnings per share $2.09Free cash flow per share $-0.05Dividend per share $1.62
2019Earnings per share $4.19Free cash flow per share $-1.10Dividend per share $1.76
2020Earnings per share $7.02Free cash flow per share $-3.57Dividend per share $2.01
2021Earnings per share $2.11Free cash flow per share $-1.87Dividend per share $2.13
2022Earnings per share $3.38Free cash flow per share $-6.66Dividend per share $2.26
2023Earnings per share $4.86Free cash flow per share $-3.44Dividend per share $2.34
2024Earnings per share $4.49Free cash flow per share $-5.19Dividend per share $2.35
2025Earnings per share $2.81Free cash flow per share $-9.25Dividend per share $2.45
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
500.0M550.0M600.0M650.0M700.0M
2016Diluted shares 502.3M
2017Diluted shares 504.6M
2018Diluted shares 539.7M
2019Diluted shares 564.1M
2020Diluted shares 584.5M
2021Diluted shares 626.1M
2022Diluted shares 632.8M
2023Diluted shares 632.7M
2024Diluted shares 637.9M
2025Diluted shares 653.8M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
How strong is the balance sheet?
Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.
Net debt
-2.0B02.0B4.0B6.0B
2016Net debt 1.4B
2017Net debt 1.3B
2018Net debt 1.9B
2019Net debt 3.4B
2020Net debt -75.0M
2021Net debt 2.9B
2022Net debt 3.0B
2023Net debt 2.1B
2024Net debt 451.0M
2025Net debt 4.1B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
0.7×
Interest coverage
2× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
1.59 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
— collects in 52d
Three classic screens of the accounts
Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.
Piotroski F-score
Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.
4of 8 tests passed
✓ProfitableReturn on assets above zeropassed
✓Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zeropassed
✕Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforefailed
✓Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)passed
✕Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fellfailed
✓More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year beforepassed
✕No new sharesShare count did not growfailed
–Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✕Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year beforefailed
Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.
Altman Z''-score
Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?
1.89grey zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets 0.12 × 6.56+0.77
Retained earnings ÷ assets 0.15 × 3.26+0.50
Operating income ÷ assets 0.03 × 6.72+0.20
Equity ÷ liabilities 0.40 × 1.05+0.42
Where it misleads: buybacks. A company that returns so much cash that its equity turns small or negative sinks the last two ratios without being anywhere near bankruptcy. Banks and insurers do not fit the model at all.
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
The accounts lack too many of the lines it needs.
Where the statements disagree
Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.
None of the six cross-checks fires for the latest year: receivables and inventory move with revenue, profit turns into cash, investment keeps up with depreciation, the tax rate is ordinary and debt is moderate.
What is it worth, under which assumptions?
A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.
With a free cash flow margin at or below zero in year ten, the business never generates cash for its owners and a DCF says nothing useful. Set a positive margin for year ten to see what it would take.
What it has filed lately
The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.
Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.