Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Boosts Holdings in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) by 5.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,651,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 335,306 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned about 0.23% of PG&E worth $116,141,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in PCG. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of PG&E by 17.3% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 101,910,190 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $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 during the fourth quarter valued at $142,612,000. Capital International Investors increased its stake in PG&E by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 116,093,791 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,093,198,000 after purchasing an additional 7,681,566 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in PG&E by 2.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 282,332,215 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,731,888,000 after purchasing an additional 5,635,693 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in PG&E by 534.4% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,314,611 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $113,852,000 after purchasing an additional 5,319,289 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.56% of the company’s stock.

PG&E Stock Performance

PCG stock opened at $20.03 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $57.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.88, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $18.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $17.91. PG&E Co. has a fifty-two week low of $14.71 and a fifty-two week high of $20.65. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99.

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

PG&E Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a $0.01 dividend. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. PG&E’s payout ratio is 3.57%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on PCG shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of PG&E from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of PG&E from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of PG&E from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $19.00 to $22.00 in a report on Monday, June 10th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of PG&E from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of PG&E from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, PG&E has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.45.

Insider Buying and Selling at PG&E

In other PG&E news, VP Stephanie N. Williams sold 38,601 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.32, for a total value of $707,170.32. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 19,114 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $350,168.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.15% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.