Bank of Montreal Can Acquires 526,645 Shares of PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

Bank of Montreal Can raised its stake in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) by 4.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 13,320,166 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 526,645 shares during the quarter. Bank of Montreal Can owned about 0.51% of PG&E worth $234,701,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. King Street Capital Management L.P. bought a new position in PG&E during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,964,250,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in PG&E by 17.3% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 101,910,190 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,779,352,000 after buying an additional 14,998,472 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in PG&E in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $142,612,000. Capital International Investors boosted its position in PG&E by 7.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 116,093,791 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,093,198,000 after acquiring an additional 7,681,566 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of PG&E by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 282,332,215 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,731,888,000 after acquiring an additional 5,635,693 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.56% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Stephanie N. Williams sold 38,601 shares of PG&E stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.32, for a total transaction of $707,170.32. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 19,114 shares in the company, valued at approximately $350,168.48. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on PCG shares. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of PG&E from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. UBS Group raised their price objective on PG&E from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Bank of America assumed coverage on PG&E in a report on Thursday, September 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $24.00 target price on the stock. Barclays raised their price target on PG&E from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised PG&E from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $19.00 to $22.00 in a research report on Monday, June 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, PG&E has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.45.

PG&E Trading Down 0.2 %

PCG opened at $20.03 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $18.87 and its 200-day moving average is $17.91. The company has a market cap of $57.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.88, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.01. PG&E Co. has a 1-year low of $14.71 and a 1-year high of $20.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $5.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.86 billion. PG&E had a return on equity of 11.76% and a net margin of 10.22%. PG&E’s revenue was up 13.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.23 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that PG&E Co. will post 1.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PG&E Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.01 per share. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 3.57%.

PG&E Profile

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.