Prudential Financial Inc. Grows Stock Position in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) by 22.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,958,355 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 355,977 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in PG&E were worth $39,520,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of PG&E by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 254,358,968 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,132,964,000 after buying an additional 6,151,233 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC grew its holdings in PG&E by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 2,073,103 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $41,835,000 after acquiring an additional 85,081 shares in the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in shares of PG&E in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,669,000. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its holdings in shares of PG&E by 49.5% in the 4th quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 207,203 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,181,000 after purchasing an additional 68,600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of PG&E during the 4th quarter worth $139,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on PG&E from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on PG&E from $16.50 to $17.50 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. UBS Group cut PG&E from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $22.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of PG&E from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Guggenheim downgraded shares of PG&E from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, PG&E presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.05.

PG&E Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:PCG opened at $17.04 on Wednesday. PG&E Co. has a 1-year low of $14.99 and a 1-year high of $21.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The stock has a market cap of $45.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.04. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $16.20 and a 200 day moving average price of $18.73.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. The firm had revenue of $6.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.29 billion. PG&E had a return on equity of 10.94% and a net margin of 10.27%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.47 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that PG&E Co. will post 1.49 EPS for the current year.

PG&E Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.025 per share. This represents a $0.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.59%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.70%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Carla J. Peterman sold 32,521 shares of the 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Arno Lockheart Harris purchased 6,389 shares of PG&E stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $15.66 per share, with a total value of $100,051.74. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 14,864 shares in the company, valued at approximately $232,770.24. This trade represents a 75.39 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

PG&E Company 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.