Legal & General Group Plc Sells 54,703 Shares of Portland General Electric Company $POR

Legal & General Group Plc trimmed its holdings in shares of Portland General Electric Company (NYSE:POR) by 8.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 567,375 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 54,703 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Portland General Electric were worth $27,228,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. UBS Group AG grew its holdings in Portland General Electric by 514.3% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 883,162 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $42,383,000 after purchasing an additional 739,404 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in Portland General Electric by 99.4% during the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,385,777 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $60,974,000 after buying an additional 690,743 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Portland General Electric by 34.1% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,497,281 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $109,381,000 after acquiring an additional 634,890 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its stake in Portland General Electric by 223.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 766,535 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $33,728,000 after acquiring an additional 529,536 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Portland General Electric by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,020,573 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $624,857,000 after acquiring an additional 513,517 shares in the last quarter.

Insider Activity at Portland General Electric

In related news, CFO Joseph R. Trpik, Jr. sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.03, for a total value of $367,725.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 31,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,563,909.91. The trade was a 19.04% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Juan Diego Gallegos sold 2,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.67, for a total transaction of $133,842.50. Following the sale, the vice president owned 12,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $590,221.09. This trade represents a 18.48% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on POR. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Portland General Electric from $47.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Portland General Electric in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Portland General Electric from $51.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $51.00 target price on shares of Portland General Electric in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Portland General Electric in a research report on Friday, May 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $51.00.

Portland General Electric Stock Performance

Shares of POR stock opened at $50.05 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $51.03 and a 200-day moving average of $50.58. Portland General Electric Company has a one year low of $39.54 and a one year high of $54.62. The company has a market cap of $5.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.52.

Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.77 by ($0.19). The firm had revenue of $879.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $953.24 million. Portland General Electric had a return on equity of 7.57% and a net margin of 7.12%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.91 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Portland General Electric Company will post 3.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Portland General Electric Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 25th will be issued a $0.5513 dividend. This is a boost from Portland General Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. This represents a $2.21 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 25th. Portland General Electric’s dividend payout ratio is currently 93.75%.

Portland General Electric Company Profile

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.