LPL Financial LLC Has $41.84 Million Stock Holdings in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

LPL Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) by 4.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,073,103 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 85,081 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC owned 0.08% of PG&E worth $41,835,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of PCG. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in shares of PG&E by 68.3% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,543 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 626 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in PG&E by 61.5% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 3,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $80,000 after buying an additional 1,506 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of PG&E by 746.0% during the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 5,465 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $110,000 after buying an additional 4,819 shares in the last quarter. Sierra Ocean LLC bought a new position in shares of PG&E in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $111,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its holdings in shares of PG&E by 32.4% in the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 6,240 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $126,000 after acquiring an additional 1,526 shares in the last quarter. 78.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on PCG. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on PG&E from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Guggenheim lowered PG&E from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of PG&E from $16.50 to $17.50 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. UBS Group cut shares of PG&E from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $22.00 to $19.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of PG&E from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.05.

Insider Activity at PG&E

In other PG&E news, Director Arno Lockheart Harris bought 6,389 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $15.66 per share, with a total value of $100,051.74. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 14,864 shares in the company, valued at approximately $232,770.24. The trade was a 75.39 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 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 value of $532,368.77. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 183,635 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,006,104.95. This represents a 15.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

PG&E Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:PCG opened at $16.98 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The stock has a market cap of $45.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a 50 day moving average of $16.21 and a 200-day moving average of $18.68. PG&E Co. has a one year low of $14.99 and a one year high of $21.72.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 10.94% and a net margin of 10.27%. The company had revenue of $6.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.29 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.47 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that PG&E Co. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

PG&E Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a $0.025 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.59%. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio is 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.