PG&E (NYSE:PCG) Sees Strong Trading Volume – Here’s What Happened

PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) saw unusually-strong trading volume on Tuesday . Approximately 14,133,940 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 1% from the previous session’s volume of 13,953,494 shares.The stock last traded at $21.16 and had previously closed at $20.55.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on PCG shares. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on PG&E from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of PG&E from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on PG&E in a research report on Monday, October 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $24.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America started coverage on PG&E in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $24.00 price target for the company. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on PG&E from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.10.

PG&E Stock Up 1.9 %

The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $20.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $19.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02. The firm has a market cap of $54.76 billion, a PE ratio of 16.06, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.01.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $5.94 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.58 billion. PG&E had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 12.51%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.24 EPS. Research analysts forecast that PG&E Co. will post 1.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PG&E Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a $0.01 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.19%. PG&E’s payout ratio is currently 3.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Patricia K. Poppe sold 55,555 shares of PG&E 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.15% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. King Street Capital Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of PG&E in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,964,250,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in PG&E by 17.3% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 101,910,190 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,779,352,000 after purchasing an additional 14,998,472 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its position in PG&E by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 176,839,426 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,496,115,000 after purchasing an additional 8,604,396 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in PG&E by 5.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 108,953,808 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,155,093,000 after purchasing an additional 5,191,463 shares during the period. Finally, Brookfield Corp ON raised its holdings in shares of 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 last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.56% of the company’s stock.

About PG&E

PG&E Corporation, through its subsidiary, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, engages in the sale and delivery of electricity and natural gas to customers in northern and central California, the United States. It generates electricity using nuclear, hydroelectric, fossil fuel-fired, fuel cell, and photovoltaic sources.