Portland General Electric Company (NYSE:POR) Stock Rated “Hold” by Sell-Side Analysts

Shares of Portland General Electric Company (NYSE:POR) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $51.15.

POR has been the topic of several analyst reports. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of Portland General Electric in a report on Thursday. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Portland General Electric from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH upgraded shares of Portland General Electric from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $48.50 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Portland General Electric from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Portland General Electric from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 9th.

Portland General Electric Stock Performance

Shares of POR opened at $46.88 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $49.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $50.62. The stock has a market cap of $5.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.65, a PEG ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.51. Portland General Electric has a 52 week low of $42.58 and a 52 week high of $54.62.

Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $814.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $839.75 million. Portland General Electric had a net margin of 7.27% and a return on equity of 7.47%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.66 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Portland General Electric will post 3.38 EPS for the current year.

Portland General Electric Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 25th will be issued a $0.5513 dividend. This represents a $2.21 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 25th. Portland General Electric’s payout ratio is 96.92%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Portland General Electric

In related news, Director Michael Lewis sold 1,537 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.83, for a total transaction of $79,662.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 15,045 shares in the company, valued at approximately $779,782.35. This represents a 9.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Portland General Electric

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of POR. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Portland General Electric by 1,342.7% during the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 4,643,134 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $222,824,000 after purchasing an additional 4,321,305 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of Portland General Electric by 7.4% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 18,719,655 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $970,240,000 after buying an additional 1,292,219 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Portland General Electric during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $56,497,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its stake in Portland General Electric by 3,222.3% during the second quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 685,133 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,510,000 after buying an additional 664,511 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Portland General Electric by 60.6% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,660,446 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $87,622,000 after buying an additional 626,223 shares during the last quarter.

Portland General Electric Company Profile

Portland General Electric Company (NYSE: POR) is an investor-owned electric utility that generates, purchases, transmits, distributes and sells electricity in Oregon. The company serves residential, commercial, industrial and other customers, offering electric delivery and related energy services across its service territory.

Founded in 1889, Portland General Electric is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and serves communities in the Portland metropolitan area and the Willamette Valley, among other parts of the state.