California Public Employees Retirement System Purchases 1,936,859 Shares of PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its position in shares of PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) by 50.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,754,849 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,936,859 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in PG&E were worth $103,760,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in PG&E by 8.8% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 268,407,694 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,329,416,000 after acquiring an additional 21,731,911 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in PG&E by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 176,029,931 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,839,363,000 after acquiring an additional 4,044,631 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in PG&E by 27.8% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 83,522,320 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,347,215,000 after acquiring an additional 18,180,432 shares in the last quarter. Third Point LLC lifted its position in PG&E by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. Third Point LLC now owns 56,860,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $917,152,000 after acquiring an additional 2,860,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in PG&E by 21.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,270,915 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $294,710,000 after acquiring an additional 3,258,363 shares in the last quarter. 78.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of PG&E from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of PG&E in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $21.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of PG&E from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on shares of PG&E from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, PG&E has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $18.89.

PG&E Stock Up 0.1 %

PG&E stock opened at $16.96 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.24 billion, a PE ratio of 16.15 and a beta of 1.32. The company’s 50-day moving average is $16.55 and its 200-day moving average is $16.88. PG&E Co. has a fifty-two week low of $14.71 and a fifty-two week high of $18.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.04, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.78.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The utilities provider reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.01. PG&E had a net margin of 9.24% and a return on equity of 10.84%. The company had revenue of $7.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.43 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.26 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that PG&E Co. will post 1.35 earnings per share for the current year.

PG&E Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th were paid a $0.01 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.24%. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 3.81%.

PG&E Company 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.