PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) Increases Dividend to $0.03 Per Share

PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) declared a quarterly dividend on Saturday, November 2nd,NASDAQ Dividends reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.025 per share by the utilities provider on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $0.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This is an increase from PG&E’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.01.

PG&E has a dividend payout ratio of 6.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect PG&E to earn $1.49 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.10 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 6.7%.

PG&E Stock Performance

Shares of PG&E stock opened at $20.14 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $20.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $19.37. PG&E has a one year low of $15.94 and a one year high of $21.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $52.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.73, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.01.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.05. PG&E had a return on equity of 12.51% and a net margin of 11.11%. The firm had revenue of $5.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.58 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.24 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that PG&E will post 1.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Bank of America started coverage on PG&E in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $24.00 price target for the company. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of PG&E from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of PG&E from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of PG&E from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of PG&E in a research note on Monday, October 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $24.00 price objective for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.80.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Patricia K. Poppe sold 55,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.66, for a total transaction of $1,147,766.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,460,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,168,186.52. This represents a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

PG&E Company Profile

PG&E Corporation, through its subsidiary, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, engages in the sale and delivery of electricity and natural gas to customers in northern and central California, the United States. It generates electricity using nuclear, hydroelectric, fossil fuel-fired, fuel cell, and photovoltaic sources.