Insider Buying: Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) Director Purchases $97,600.00 in Stock

Portland General Electric Company (NYSE:POR) Director Robert Hoglund acquired 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 11th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $48.80 per share, for a total transaction of $97,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 2,519 shares in the company, valued at approximately $122,927.20. The trade was a 385.36% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Portland General Electric Trading Down 0.0%

Shares of NYSE:POR opened at $48.20 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19. The company’s 50 day moving average is $51.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $50.37. The company has a market cap of $5.58 billion, a PE ratio of 21.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.54. Portland General Electric Company has a 52 week low of $39.54 and a 52 week high of $54.62.

Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by ($0.19). The company had revenue of $879.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $953.24 million. Portland General Electric had a net margin of 7.12% and a return on equity of 7.57%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.91 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Portland General Electric Company will post 3.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Portland General Electric Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 25th will be given a $0.5513 dividend. This is a positive change from Portland General Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 25th. This represents a $2.21 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.6%. Portland General Electric’s payout ratio is 93.75%.

Institutional Trading of Portland General Electric

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Portland General Electric by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,020,573 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $624,857,000 after acquiring an additional 513,517 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Portland General Electric by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,728,784 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $229,333,000 after acquiring an additional 156,164 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Portland General Electric by 1,342.7% in the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 4,643,134 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $222,824,000 after acquiring an additional 4,321,305 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Portland General Electric by 42.2% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,551,731 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $170,448,000 after acquiring an additional 1,054,450 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in shares of Portland General Electric by 23.3% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,985,941 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $131,381,000 after acquiring an additional 564,379 shares during the period.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on POR. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Portland General Electric from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Portland General Electric in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Portland General Electric from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $58.00 target price on shares of Portland General Electric in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Portland General Electric from $51.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Portland General Electric has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.00.

About Portland General Electric

Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) is an investor-owned electric utility headquartered in Tigard, Oregon, with roots tracing back to the late 19th century. The company generates, transmits and distributes electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers across a broad territory in Oregon, primarily encompassing the Portland metropolitan area and surrounding regions.

As one of Oregon’s largest electric utilities, Portland General Electric operates a diverse portfolio of generation assets, including hydroelectric facilities, natural gas–fired plants and renewable energy sources.