PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) Receives $23.10 Consensus PT from Brokerages

PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $23.00.

PCG has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of PG&E from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of PG&E from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Mizuho raised their target price on PG&E from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on PG&E in a research note on Monday, October 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $24.00 price target on the stock. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on PG&E from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd.

PG&E Stock Performance

NYSE:PCG opened at $19.71 on Wednesday. PG&E has a twelve month low of $15.94 and a twelve month high of $21.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $51.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.40, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $19.27.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $5.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.58 billion. PG&E had a return on equity of 12.51% and a net margin of 11.11%. The company’s revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.24 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that PG&E will post 1.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PG&E Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.025 dividend. This represents a $0.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This is an increase from PG&E’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.01. PG&E’s payout ratio is currently 3.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other PG&E news, CEO Patricia K. Poppe sold 55,555 shares of PG&E stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,460,222 shares in the company, valued at $30,168,186.52. The trade was a 3.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.15% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of PG&E

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. King Street Capital Management L.P. bought a new position in PG&E during the 2nd quarter worth $1,964,250,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of PG&E by 17.3% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 101,910,190 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,779,352,000 after acquiring an additional 14,998,472 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of PG&E by 5.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 176,839,426 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,496,115,000 after acquiring an additional 8,604,396 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased 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 worth $2,155,093,000 after acquiring an additional 5,191,463 shares during the period. Finally, Brookfield Corp ON lifted its position in PG&E by 45.6% in the 3rd quarter. Brookfield Corp ON now owns 12,643,085 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $249,954,000 after purchasing an additional 3,958,495 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.56% of the company’s stock.

PG&E Company Profile

PG&E Corporation, through its subsidiary, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, engages in the sale and delivery of electricity and natural gas to customers in northern and central California, the United States. It generates electricity using nuclear, hydroelectric, fossil fuel-fired, fuel cell, and photovoltaic sources.