PG&E (NYSE:PCG) Lowered to “Underweight” Rating by Morgan Stanley

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) was downgraded by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research note issued on Friday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. They presently have a $16.50 price target on the utilities provider’s stock, down from their prior price target of $20.00. Morgan Stanley’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 3.81% from the stock’s current price.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on PCG. UBS Group dropped their price target on PG&E from $24.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Mizuho boosted their price target on PG&E from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Barclays dropped their price target on PG&E from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on PG&E in a research note on Monday, January 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $21.00 price target on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of PG&E in a research report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.05.

PG&E Price Performance

PG&E stock opened at $15.90 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $18.12 and its 200 day moving average is $19.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The firm has a market cap of $41.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.99. PG&E has a one year low of $14.99 and a one year high of $21.72.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. PG&E had a return on equity of 12.51% and a net margin of 11.11%. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.47 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that PG&E will post 1.36 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other PG&E news, CEO Patricia K. Poppe sold 55,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.66, for a total value of $1,147,766.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,460,222 shares in the company, valued at $30,168,186.52. This represents a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PCG. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of PG&E by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 254,358,968 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,132,964,000 after buying an additional 6,151,233 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of PG&E by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 176,839,426 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,496,115,000 after buying an additional 8,604,396 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of PG&E by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 108,953,808 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,155,093,000 after buying an additional 5,191,463 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of PG&E by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 104,846,953 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,072,824,000 after buying an additional 2,936,763 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of PG&E by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,988,553 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,046,462,000 after buying an additional 2,151,494 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.56% of the company’s stock.

PG&E Company Profile

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.