Howard Capital Management Inc. Purchases 14,786 Shares of PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

Howard Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) by 32.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 59,799 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,786 shares during the quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in PG&E were worth $1,207,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC lifted its position in PG&E by 5.1% during the third 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 period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of PG&E by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 108,953,808 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,155,093,000 after acquiring an additional 5,191,463 shares in the last quarter. Brookfield Corp ON lifted its position in PG&E by 45.6% during the 3rd quarter. Brookfield Corp ON now owns 12,643,085 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $249,954,000 after acquiring an additional 3,958,495 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in PG&E by 2.9% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 104,846,953 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,072,824,000 after acquiring an additional 2,936,763 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. grew its holdings in PG&E by 91.2% in the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 4,027,434 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $79,622,000 after purchasing an additional 1,920,734 shares during the period. 78.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of PG&E in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Guggenheim downgraded PG&E from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. UBS Group reduced their price target on PG&E from $24.00 to $22.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of PG&E from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $20.00 to $16.50 in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of PG&E from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.23.

PG&E Stock Performance

Shares of PCG stock opened at $15.94 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.57 billion, a PE ratio of 13.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $17.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $19.12. PG&E Co. has a 52 week low of $14.99 and a 52 week high of $21.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31. The business had revenue of $6.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.29 billion. PG&E had a net margin of 10.27% and a return on equity of 10.94%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.47 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that PG&E Co. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

PG&E Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.025 dividend. This represents a $0.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.63%. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio is 8.70%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other PG&E news, Director Arno Lockheart Harris purchased 6,389 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $15.66 per share, for a total transaction of $100,051.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 14,864 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $232,770.24. The trade was a 75.39 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,460,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,168,186.52. This trade represents a 3.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.15% 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.