PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) Shares Bought by Prudential PLC

Prudential PLC grew its stake in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) by 581.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 207,154 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 176,764 shares during the quarter. Prudential PLC’s holdings in PG&E were worth $4,180,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in PG&E by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 254,358,968 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,132,964,000 after buying an additional 6,151,233 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of PG&E by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,988,553 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,046,462,000 after acquiring an additional 2,151,494 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in PG&E by 6.4% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 30,255,039 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $598,142,000 after purchasing an additional 1,822,835 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in PG&E in the fourth quarter worth $591,625,000. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its stake in PG&E by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 17,385,629 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $350,842,000 after purchasing an additional 82,705 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.56% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on PCG shares. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of PG&E from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. UBS Group downgraded PG&E from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $22.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Guggenheim cut PG&E from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on PG&E from $16.50 to $17.50 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of PG&E in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.05.

Insider Activity

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

PG&E Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PCG opened at $16.46 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $43.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.70. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $16.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $18.58. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. The company had revenue of $6.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.29 billion. PG&E had a net margin of 10.27% and a return on equity of 10.94%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.47 EPS. Equities analysts expect that PG&E Co. will post 1.49 EPS for the current year.

PG&E Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.025 per share. This represents a $0.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. PG&E’s payout ratio is currently 8.70%.

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.