Investors Purchase Large Volume of PG&E Call Options (NYSE:PCG)

PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders acquired 51,272 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 131% compared to the typical volume of 22,182 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other PG&E news, EVP Carla J. Peterman sold 32,519 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.30, for a total transaction of $562,578.70. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 151,116 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,614,306.80. The trade was a 17.71% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.14% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PG&E

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. New York State Teachers Retirement System increased its position in shares of PG&E by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 1,974,070 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $39,837,000 after purchasing an additional 148,860 shares during the last quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. purchased a new position in PG&E during the fourth quarter worth about $466,000. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its stake in PG&E by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 4,248,558 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $85,736,000 after buying an additional 228,099 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in shares of PG&E by 14.5% during the fourth quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 101,240 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,043,000 after acquiring an additional 12,847 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Savant Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of PG&E by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 27,113 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $547,000 after acquiring an additional 1,739 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PCG has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on PG&E from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $24.00 price objective on shares of PG&E in a report on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group lowered shares of PG&E from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $22.00 to $19.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of PG&E from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “overweight” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of PG&E in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.75.

PG&E Trading Down 3.5%

PG&E stock traded down $0.52 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $14.28. 16,152,625 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 17,200,413. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $16.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.43. PG&E has a fifty-two week low of $14.07 and a fifty-two week high of $21.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.41, a PEG ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.60.

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

PG&E Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.025 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $0.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.17%.

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.