Ballentine Partners LLC Acquires 934 Shares of PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

Ballentine Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) by 3.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 25,575 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 934 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in PG&E were worth $516,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in PCG. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in shares of PG&E by 68.3% in 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 period. William B. Walkup & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in PG&E in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $74,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in PG&E by 61.5% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 3,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $80,000 after acquiring an additional 1,506 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in PG&E by 77.7% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,195 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,000 after acquiring an additional 1,834 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of PG&E by 98.5% during the 3rd quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,340 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $86,000 after acquiring an additional 2,154 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on PCG. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of PG&E from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on PG&E in a report on Monday, January 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $21.00 price objective for the company. Mizuho upped their target price on PG&E from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Barclays decreased their price target on PG&E from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on PG&E in a research note on Monday, October 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $24.00 price objective on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, PG&E presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.64.

PG&E Stock Performance

NYSE PCG opened at $16.24 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $42.48 billion, a PE ratio of 12.69, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.04. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $19.73 and a 200-day moving average of $19.46. PG&E Co. has a 52-week low of $15.94 and a 52-week high of $21.72.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.05. PG&E had a return on equity of 12.51% and a net margin of 11.11%. The business had revenue of $5.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.58 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.24 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that PG&E Co. will post 1.36 EPS for the current year.

PG&E Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a dividend of $0.025 per share. This represents a $0.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from PG&E’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.01. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.81%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other PG&E news, CEO Patricia K. Poppe sold 55,555 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.66, for a total transaction 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.15% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

PG&E 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.