Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. Increases Stake in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. boosted its stake in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) by 20.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 37,350 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,350 shares during the quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in PG&E were worth $754,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 6,151,233 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. Brookfield Corp ON raised its holdings in PG&E by 45.6% in the third quarter. Brookfield Corp ON now owns 12,643,085 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $249,954,000 after buying an additional 3,958,495 shares during the period. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. lifted its position in PG&E by 91.2% during the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 4,027,434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $79,622,000 after buying an additional 1,920,734 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in PG&E by 13.6% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 15,572,325 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $307,865,000 after buying an additional 1,867,690 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.56% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of PG&E from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “overweight” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of PG&E in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. UBS Group lowered PG&E from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $22.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Barclays reduced their price target on PG&E from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of PG&E from $16.50 to $17.50 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.05.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other PG&E news, Director Arno Lockheart Harris bought 6,389 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were bought 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 owns 14,864 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $232,770.24. This trade represents a 75.39 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 183,635 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,006,104.95. The trade was a 15.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

PG&E Stock Down 0.5 %

PCG stock opened at $17.15 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $45.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.91, a PEG ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.04. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $16.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $18.70. 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 Co. has a twelve month low of $14.99 and a twelve month high of $21.72.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $7.29 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.47 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that PG&E Co. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PG&E Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. PG&E’s payout ratio is currently 8.70%.

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.