Portland General Electric Company (NYSE:POR) Stock Has Average Target Price of $50.15 According to Brokerages

Shares of Portland General Electric Company (NYSE:POR) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the ten brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $50.50.

POR has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Portland General Electric from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 9th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Portland General Electric from $52.00 to $47.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 30th. BTIG Research set a $57.00 price target on shares of Portland General Electric in a research report on Tuesday. Zacks Research raised shares of Portland General Electric from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Portland General Electric from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 27th.

Portland General Electric Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of Portland General Electric stock opened at $43.87 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.98. The company has a market capitalization of $5.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.32, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.49. Portland General Electric has a 1 year low of $43.26 and a 1 year high of $54.62. The company’s fifty day moving average is $47.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $49.61.

Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.65 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $814.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $839.75 million. Portland General Electric had a return on equity of 7.47% and a net margin of 7.27%. Portland General Electric’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.66 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Portland General Electric will post 3.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Portland General Electric Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 15th. Investors of record on Friday, September 25th were given a dividend of $0.5513 per share. This represents a $2.21 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 25th. Portland General Electric’s dividend payout ratio is 96.92%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Michael Lewis sold 1,537 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.83, for a total value of $79,662.71. Following the transaction, the director owned 15,045 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $779,782.35. This trade represents a 9.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Portland General Electric

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in POR. Sterling Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Portland General Electric by 18.8% in the first quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 127,496 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,728,000 after buying an additional 20,147 shares during the last quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP lifted its position in Portland General Electric by 323.2% in the 2nd quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 80,264 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,160,000 after purchasing an additional 61,297 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Portland General Electric by 8.0% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,019,860 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $262,810,000 after purchasing an additional 372,165 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position in Portland General Electric by 40.1% in the 2nd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 264,569 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $13,714,000 after purchasing an additional 75,775 shares during the last quarter. Finally, 1834 Investment Advisors Co. grew its position in Portland General Electric by 125.1% in the 3rd quarter. 1834 Investment Advisors Co. now owns 100,332 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,478,000 after purchasing an additional 55,751 shares during the last quarter.

About Portland General Electric

Portland General Electric Company (NYSE:POR) is an investor-owned electric utility that generates, purchases, transmits, distributes and sells electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers. The company also offers energy-management programs, renewable energy options and other services designed to support energy efficiency and electrification.

PGE serves communities throughout the state of Oregon, including the Portland metropolitan area and the Willamette Valley. Its operations include a diverse portfolio of power generation resources, transmission and distribution infrastructure, and programs supporting the integration of renewable energy and electric vehicles.

The company traces its history to the development of electric service in Oregon in the late 19th century.