US Bancorp DE Grows Stake in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

US Bancorp DE raised its stake in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) by 63.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 227,937 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 88,118 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE’s holdings in PG&E were worth $4,600,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Czech National Bank boosted its stake in PG&E by 8.9% in the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 474,013 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $9,566,000 after acquiring an additional 38,590 shares during the last quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in PG&E by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 1,974,070 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $39,837,000 after acquiring an additional 148,860 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in PG&E by 5.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 108,953,808 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,155,093,000 after acquiring an additional 5,191,463 shares during the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in PG&E by 259.6% in the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 61,850 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,223,000 after acquiring an additional 44,650 shares during the last quarter. Finally, McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in PG&E in the fourth quarter valued at about $514,000. 78.56% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $22.00 price target on shares of PG&E in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of PG&E from $24.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of PG&E from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $20.00 to $16.50 in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of PG&E from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Guggenheim lowered shares of PG&E from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.23.

PG&E Stock Performance

PG&E stock opened at $16.41 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $16.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $18.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.82 billion, a PE ratio of 14.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.99. PG&E Co. has a 1-year low of $14.99 and a 1-year high of $21.72.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last posted its 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 business had revenue of $6.63 billion for 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.47 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that PG&E Co. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PG&E Announces Dividend

The business 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 $0.025 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.61%. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio is presently 8.70%.

PG&E Profile

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.