Pacific Gas & Electric (NYSE:PCG) Director Kerry Whorton Cooper Sells 2,500 Shares

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (NYSE:PCG) Director Kerry Whorton Cooper sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.68, for a total value of $46,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 73,141 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,366,273.88. The trade was a 3.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Pacific Gas & Electric Trading Down 0.4%

NYSE:PCG traded down $0.08 on Tuesday, hitting $18.38. 26,443,299 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 22,041,016. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $16.90 and a 200-day moving average of $16.16. The stock has a market cap of $40.39 billion, a PE ratio of 15.57, a PEG ratio of 0.69 and a beta of 0.33. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has a fifty-two week low of $12.97 and a fifty-two week high of $19.16.

Pacific Gas & Electric (NYSE:PCG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.36. Pacific Gas & Electric had a net margin of 10.84% and a return on equity of 11.28%. The firm had revenue of $6.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.31 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Pacific Gas & Electric Co. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pacific Gas & Electric Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.05 per share. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 31st. Pacific Gas & Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.95%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PCG. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Pacific Gas & Electric from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Pacific Gas & Electric from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Pacific Gas & Electric from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Pacific Gas & Electric from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Pacific Gas & Electric in a report on Monday, December 29th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pacific Gas & Electric presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.09.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Tobam bought a new stake in shares of Pacific Gas & Electric in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its stake in Pacific Gas & Electric by 59.5% in the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 468,091 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,522,000 after acquiring an additional 174,564 shares during the last quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. lifted its stake in Pacific Gas & Electric by 96.5% in the fourth quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. now owns 110,915 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,782,000 after acquiring an additional 54,474 shares during the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its position in Pacific Gas & Electric by 42.9% in the fourth quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 9,454 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $152,000 after acquiring an additional 2,836 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Syon Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Pacific Gas & Electric by 9.3% during the 4th quarter. Syon Capital LLC now owns 56,014 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $900,000 after purchasing an additional 4,783 shares during the last quarter. 78.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Pacific Gas & Electric

Pacific Gas & Electric (NYSE: PCG) is an investor-owned utility holding company whose principal operating subsidiary, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, provides electricity and natural gas service in northern and central California. The company’s core activities include the generation, procurement, transmission and distribution of electric power, as well as the transmission and distribution of natural gas. PG&E serves a broad mix of residential, commercial, and industrial customers across urban and rural communities within its California service territory.

PG&E’s operations encompass utility infrastructure planning and construction, grid operations, customer service and energy procurement.