PG&E (NYSE:PCG) Stock Price Expected to Rise, BMO Capital Markets Analyst Says

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) had its price objective increased by research analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $21.00 to $23.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ price objective points to a potential upside of 49.31% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley cut shares of PG&E from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $20.00 to $16.50 in a research report on Friday. Barclays lowered their price target on PG&E from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Mizuho increased their target price on PG&E from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “overweight” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of PG&E in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, UBS Group cut 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 note on Thursday, January 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.23.

PG&E Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE PCG traded up $0.11 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $15.40. 15,942,917 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 28,392,793. PG&E has a twelve month low of $14.99 and a twelve month high of $21.72. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $17.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $19.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.03, a PEG ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.04.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. The company had revenue of $6.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.29 billion. PG&E had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 12.51%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.47 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that PG&E will post 1.36 earnings per share for the current year.

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 on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.66, for a total value of $1,147,766.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,460,222 shares in the company, valued at $30,168,186.52. This trade represents a 3.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.15% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in PG&E by 2.5% in 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 purchasing an additional 6,151,233 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of PG&E by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 176,839,426 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,496,115,000 after buying an additional 8,604,396 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of PG&E by 5.0% in 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 in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of PG&E by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 104,846,953 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,072,824,000 after buying an additional 2,936,763 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in 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 worth $1,046,462,000 after acquiring an additional 2,151,494 shares in the last quarter. 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.