Sempra lifts capital spending plan, beats quarterly profit estimates

Feb 26 (Reuters) - Energy infrastructure company Sempra SRE.N raised its five-year capital plan by 16% and beat Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter adjusted profit on Thursday, helped by higher power demand and investments in grid modernization.

Shares of the company rose 1.8% in premarket trading.

With tech giants racing to build data centers to support complex artificial intelligence-related tasks, U.S. utilities are stepping up their capital-expenditure budgets to keep pace with the surge in power demand.

The company projected capital expenditure from 2026 to 2030 at $65 billion, compared with the prior plan of $56 billion from 2025 to 2029, to focus on regulated utility investments in Texas and California.

It is also targeting 2% to 4% annual dividend increases across the plan period.

Quarterly results were lifted by strong performance at Sempra Texas, whose utility Oncor continued to expand its electrical grid to meet rising power demand from industrial customers and data centers.

Sempra also identified an additional $9 billion of potential incremental capital expenditures through 2030 with the majority intended to support Oncor's grid expansion.

The company expects to complete a planned sale of a 45% stake in Sempra Infrastructure Partners to KKR affiliates for $10 billion by the second quarter or third quarter, as part of efforts to simplify its business and strengthen its balance sheet.

Earnings at its Sempra Texas utilities segment rose 48.9% to $201 million in the reported quarter.

Sempra's quarterly operation and maintenance expenses fell 7.8% to $1.35 billion compared with a year ago.

The San Diego, California-based company posted an adjusted profit of $1.28 per share for the three months ended December 31, compared with the average of analysts' estimates of $1.17 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG.