Sempra Energy -- Absolutely Nothing To Do With the Bakken --

Hitting 52-week high; raises dividend from 48 cents to 60 cents. 

Press release here.

Sempra Energy said its fourth-quarter profit rose 4 percent, as rising utility revenues and lower natural gas prices helped boost income.

Sempra, which operates traditional utility companies and builds energy infrastructure, also said Tuesday it will boost its quarterly dividend by 25 percent as the company's performance in 2011 beat its own financial objectives.

The company said revenue from its utilities rose 28 percent during the quarter, reaching $2.4 billion. That helped offset a decline in revenue from its much smaller segment of other energy related businesses, which fell 55 percent to $215 million. 

Transcript here. 

Market Watch story here.

Sempra Energy shares rose 1.6% after it said its fourth-quarter profit increased to $292 million, or $1.21 a share, from $280 million, or $1.15 a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue rose to $2.6 billion, from $2.35 billion. Wall Street analysts expected the power firm to earn $1.06 a share, on revenue of $2.35 billion, according to a survey by FactSet Research. The company OK'd a 25% increase to its quarterly dividend 60 cents, from 48 cents a share. [Comment: yield greater than 3% prior to the increase, and as much as 4% earlier it the year.]

20-20 hindsight: Wow! Look what Forbes/analysts were expecting -- $1.06. Analysts were off by a Norwegian mile.

Note: this is not an investment site; see disclaimer at the sidebar at the right. I have owned SRE since I began investing back in 1984, and continue to accumulate shares but will be making no additional purchases based on this quarterly report.