PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) Director Buys $100,051.74 in Stock

PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) Director Arno Lockheart Harris purchased 6,389 shares of PG&E stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The shares were bought at an average price of $15.66 per share, for a total transaction of $100,051.74. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 14,864 shares in the company, valued at approximately $232,770.24. This trade represents a 75.39 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

PG&E Trading Up 1.6 %

NYSE PCG traded up $0.25 during trading on Friday, hitting $15.94. The stock had a trading volume of 32,045,884 shares, compared to its average volume of 28,269,914. The company has a market capitalization of $42.57 billion, a PE ratio of 13.86, a PEG ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $17.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $19.10. PG&E Co. has a twelve month low of $14.99 and a twelve month high of $21.72.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.31. The company had revenue of $6.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.29 billion. PG&E had a return on equity of 10.94% and a net margin of 10.27%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.47 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that PG&E Co. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

PG&E Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a $0.025 dividend. This represents a $0.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.63%. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.70%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on PCG. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on PG&E from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Barclays reduced their price target on PG&E from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. Guggenheim lowered PG&E from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley lowered PG&E from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $20.00 to $16.50 in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on PG&E from $24.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, PG&E presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.23.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PG&E

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of PG&E by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 254,358,968 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,132,964,000 after buying an additional 6,151,233 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of PG&E by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 176,839,426 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,496,115,000 after buying an additional 8,604,396 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of PG&E by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 108,953,808 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,155,093,000 after buying an additional 5,191,463 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in shares of PG&E by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 104,846,953 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,072,824,000 after buying an additional 2,936,763 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of PG&E by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,988,553 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,046,462,000 after buying an additional 2,151,494 shares during the period. 78.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About PG&E

PG&E Corp. operates as a holding company, which engages in generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity and natural gas to customers. It specializes in energy, utility, power, gas, electricity, solar and sustainability. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Oakland, CA.