Alliancebernstein L.P. Increases Position in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) by 0.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,336,252 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,872 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. owned about 0.09% of PG&E worth $47,146,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in shares of PG&E by 68.3% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,543 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 626 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in PG&E by 61.5% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 3,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $80,000 after buying an additional 1,506 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in PG&E by 746.0% during the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 5,465 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $110,000 after buying an additional 4,819 shares during the last quarter. Sierra Ocean LLC bought a new stake in PG&E in the fourth quarter worth about $111,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its stake in PG&E by 32.4% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 6,240 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $126,000 after acquiring an additional 1,526 shares during the last quarter. 78.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on PCG shares. Guggenheim lowered shares of PG&E from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on PG&E from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of PG&E in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on PG&E from $16.50 to $17.50 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Barclays dropped 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, PG&E presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.05.

Insider Activity

In other PG&E news, EVP Carla J. Peterman sold 32,521 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.37, for a total transaction of $532,368.77. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 183,635 shares in the company, valued at $3,006,104.95. This trade represents a 15.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Arno Lockheart Harris purchased 6,389 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $15.66 per share, with a total value of $100,051.74. Following the purchase, the director now owns 14,864 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $232,770.24. The trade was 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 Price Performance

PCG stock opened at $16.46 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $16.25 and a 200-day moving average of $18.59. 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 $43.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.04. PG&E Co. has a 12 month low of $14.99 and a 12 month high of $21.72.

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

PG&E Dividend Announcement

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

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.