Barclays Cuts PG&E (NYSE:PCG) Price Target to $23.00

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) had its price target trimmed by Barclays from $24.00 to $23.00 in a research note released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently weighed in on PCG. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of PG&E from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. UBS Group reduced their price target on PG&E from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on PG&E in a research report on Monday, October 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $24.00 price objective for the company. Finally, BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on PG&E in a research report on Monday, January 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $21.00 target price on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.55.

PG&E Stock Performance

Shares of PCG stock opened at $15.79 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $41.30 billion, a PE ratio of 12.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 0.98. PG&E has a 52-week low of $15.74 and a 52-week high of $21.72. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $19.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $19.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $5.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.58 billion. PG&E had a return on equity of 12.51% and a net margin of 11.11%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.24 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that PG&E will post 1.36 EPS for the current year.

PG&E Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a $0.025 dividend. This represents a $0.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.63%. This is a boost from PG&E’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.01. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio is 7.81%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other PG&E news, CEO Patricia K. Poppe sold 55,555 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.66, for a total value of $1,147,766.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,460,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,168,186.52. This trade represents a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PG&E

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. 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 valued at $3,496,115,000 after purchasing an additional 8,604,396 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position 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 valued at $2,155,093,000 after buying an additional 5,191,463 shares during the period. Brookfield Corp ON lifted its holdings in PG&E by 45.6% in the third quarter. Brookfield Corp ON now owns 12,643,085 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $249,954,000 after acquiring an additional 3,958,495 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC acquired a new position in PG&E in the second quarter valued at approximately $56,679,000. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.56% of the company’s stock.

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.