ClearBridge Investments Ltd Increases Holdings in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

ClearBridge Investments Ltd lifted its holdings in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) by 10.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 7,481,722 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 680,916 shares during the period. PG&E comprises 4.0% of ClearBridge Investments Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest position. ClearBridge Investments Ltd owned 0.29% of PG&E worth $150,981,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in PG&E by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 254,358,968 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,132,964,000 after purchasing an additional 6,151,233 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of PG&E by 5.0% during the 3rd 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. Geode Capital Management LLC increased 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 buying an additional 536,914 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in 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 worth $598,142,000 after buying an additional 1,822,835 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in PG&E during the 4th quarter worth $591,625,000. Institutional investors own 78.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays cut their target price on PG&E from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. UBS Group downgraded PG&E from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $22.00 to $19.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Guggenheim cut shares of PG&E from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of PG&E in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on PG&E from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.05.

Insider Activity

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

PG&E Stock Performance

NYSE PCG opened at $16.98 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $45.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.04. The business has a fifty day moving average of $16.21 and a 200-day moving average of $18.68. PG&E Co. has a fifty-two week low of $14.99 and a fifty-two week high of $21.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86.

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

PG&E Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.025 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.59%. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.70%.

PG&E Profile

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.