Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Boosts Holdings in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its stake in shares of PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) by 37.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 67,647 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 18,585 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in PG&E were worth $1,365,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in PCG. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of PG&E by 4,623.1% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 34,006 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $672,000 after buying an additional 33,286 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in PG&E by 38.0% in the third quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 78,712 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,556,000 after purchasing an additional 21,658 shares during the period. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in PG&E in the third quarter worth $276,000. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its holdings in PG&E by 10.8% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 37,885 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $749,000 after purchasing an additional 3,682 shares during the period. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in PG&E by 1.4% in the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 1,934,281 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $38,241,000 after purchasing an additional 25,785 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on PCG. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of PG&E from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of PG&E in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of PG&E from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $20.00 to $16.50 in a report on Friday, February 14th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of PG&E from $24.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of PG&E from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other PG&E news, CEO Patricia K. Poppe sold 55,555 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.66, for a total transaction of $1,147,766.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,460,222 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,168,186.52. The trade was a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Arno Lockheart Harris bought 6,389 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $15.66 per share, for a total transaction of $100,051.74. Following the purchase, the director now owns 14,864 shares in the company, valued at approximately $232,770.24. This represents a 75.39 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.15% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

PG&E Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PCG opened at $16.33 on Friday. PG&E Co. has a fifty-two week low of $14.99 and a fifty-two week high of $21.72. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $17.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $19.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. The stock has a market cap of $43.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.99.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $6.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.29 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.47 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that PG&E Co. will post 1.49 EPS for the current 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 given a $0.025 dividend. This represents a $0.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.61%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.