Vennlight Capital Management LP Acquires New Position in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

Vennlight Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 369,900 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $7,465,000. PG&E accounts for 7.1% of Vennlight Capital Management LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of PCG. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in PG&E by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,692,521 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $112,541,000 after purchasing an additional 420,133 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in PG&E by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 32,876 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $663,000 after purchasing an additional 1,423 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its stake in PG&E by 136.7% during the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 30,535 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $616,000 after purchasing an additional 17,636 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC acquired a new position in PG&E during the 4th quarter valued at about $12,196,000. Finally, Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in PG&E during the 4th quarter valued at about $336,000. 78.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at PG&E

In other news, Director Arno Lockheart Harris purchased 6,389 shares of PG&E stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $15.66 per share, for a total transaction of $100,051.74. Following the transaction, the director now owns 14,864 shares in the company, valued at $232,770.24. The trade was a 75.39% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Carla J. Peterman sold 32,521 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.37, for a total transaction of $532,368.77. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 183,635 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,006,104.95. The trade was a 15.05% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

PG&E Stock Up 3.0%

PCG stock opened at $17.85 on Monday. PG&E Co. has a 12 month low of $14.99 and a 12 month high of $21.72. The firm has a market cap of $47.76 billion, a PE ratio of 15.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.63. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $17.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $17.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.00.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.35 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $5.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.23 billion. PG&E had a net margin of 10.27% and a return on equity of 10.94%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.37 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that PG&E Co. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PG&E Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were given a $0.025 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.56%. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.17%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of PG&E from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. UBS Group cut shares of PG&E from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $22.00 to $19.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of PG&E from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of PG&E in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of PG&E from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.13.

About PG&E

PG&E Corp. operates as a holding company, which engages in generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity and natural gas to customers. It specializes in energy, utility, power, gas, electricity, solar and sustainability. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Oakland, CA.