Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Invests $139,000 in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. acquired a new stake in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 6,900 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $139,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Czech National Bank boosted its stake in shares of PG&E by 8.9% during 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 increased its stake in PG&E by 8.2% during the fourth quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 1,974,070 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $39,837,000 after acquiring an additional 148,860 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in PG&E by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 108,953,808 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,155,093,000 after purchasing an additional 5,191,463 shares in the last quarter. McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in PG&E during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $514,000. Finally, Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in shares of PG&E during the 4th quarter valued at $466,000. 78.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

PG&E Stock Down 1.7 %

NYSE PCG opened at $16.91 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $45.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.70, a PEG ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.04. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $16.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is $18.78. PG&E Co. has a 1-year low of $14.99 and a 1-year high of $21.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last announced 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. PG&E had a net margin of 10.27% and a return on equity of 10.94%. The company had revenue of $6.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.29 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.47 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that PG&E Co. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PG&E Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.59%. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.70%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other PG&E news, EVP Carla J. Peterman sold 32,521 shares of PG&E stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were 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 $3,006,104.95. The trade was a 15.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Arno Lockheart Harris bought 6,389 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $15.66 per share, for a total transaction of $100,051.74. Following the purchase, the director now owns 14,864 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $232,770.24. This trade represents a 75.39 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on PCG shares. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of PG&E from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Mizuho lifted their target price on PG&E from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Guggenheim downgraded shares of PG&E from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. UBS Group lowered PG&E from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $22.00 to $19.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of PG&E from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.05.

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.