Plato Investment Management Ltd Grows Position in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

Plato Investment Management Ltd raised its holdings in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) by 50.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 22,918 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,685 shares during the period. Plato Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in PG&E were worth $464,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of PCG. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in PG&E by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 176,839,426 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,496,115,000 after buying an additional 8,604,396 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of PG&E by 5.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 108,953,808 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,155,093,000 after acquiring an additional 5,191,463 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in shares of PG&E by 2.9% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 104,846,953 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,072,824,000 after acquiring an additional 2,936,763 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of PG&E by 1.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 49,837,059 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $981,960,000 after purchasing an additional 536,914 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of PG&E by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 30,255,039 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $598,142,000 after purchasing an additional 1,822,835 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 78.56% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on PG&E from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Guggenheim lowered shares of PG&E from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of PG&E from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “overweight” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of PG&E in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on PG&E from $24.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock 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 assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, PG&E currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.23.

Insider Transactions at PG&E

In other PG&E news, Director Arno Lockheart Harris purchased 6,389 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $15.66 per share, for a total transaction of $100,051.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 14,864 shares in the company, valued at approximately $232,770.24. This represents a 75.39 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Carla J. Peterman sold 32,521 shares of PG&E stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.37, for a total value of $532,368.77. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 183,635 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,006,104.95. This represents a 15.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

PG&E Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE:PCG opened at $16.15 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $16.99 and a 200 day moving average of $19.01. PG&E Co. has a 52-week low of $14.99 and a 52-week high of $21.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.13 billion, a PE ratio of 14.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.99.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. The firm had revenue of $6.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 prior year, the business earned $0.47 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that PG&E Co. will post 1.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PG&E Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.025 per share. This represents a $0.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.70%.

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.