Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $2.33 Million in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in shares of PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 129,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,326,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in PG&E by 8.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 268,407,694 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,329,416,000 after acquiring an additional 21,731,911 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of PG&E by 43.6% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 62,502,105 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,010,660,000 after purchasing an additional 18,984,092 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in PG&E by 27.8% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 83,522,320 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,347,215,000 after buying an additional 18,180,432 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in PG&E by 12.8% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 134,314,990 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,171,873,000 after buying an additional 15,210,198 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in PG&E in the 4th quarter worth about $184,847,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PCG has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded PG&E from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on PG&E in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $21.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of PG&E from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, PG&E has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.78.

PG&E Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE:PCG opened at $16.03 on Wednesday. PG&E Co. has a 52-week low of $14.71 and a 52-week high of $18.32. The stock has a market cap of $34.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.27 and a beta of 1.32. The business has a fifty day moving average of $16.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $16.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.04.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The utilities provider reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.01. PG&E had a net margin of 9.24% and a return on equity of 10.84%. The firm had revenue of $7.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.43 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.26 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that PG&E Co. will post 1.35 earnings per share for the current year.

PG&E Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were issued a dividend of $0.01 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.25%. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio is currently 3.81%.

PG&E Company Profile

PG&E Corporation, through its subsidiary, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, engages in the sale and delivery of electricity and natural gas to customers in northern and central California, the United States. It generates electricity using nuclear, hydroelectric, fossil fuel-fired, fuel cell, and photovoltaic sources.