Merit Financial Group LLC Invests $336,000 in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new position in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 16,672 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $336,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of PG&E by 68.3% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,543 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 626 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of PG&E by 77.7% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,195 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,000 after purchasing an additional 1,834 shares during the period. William B. Walkup & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of PG&E during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $74,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in PG&E by 98.5% during the 3rd quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,340 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $86,000 after buying an additional 2,154 shares during the period. Finally, Huntington National Bank lifted its position in PG&E by 32.9% in the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 4,831 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $96,000 after buying an additional 1,195 shares during the last quarter. 78.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on PCG. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of PG&E from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on shares of PG&E in a research note on Monday, January 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $21.00 price objective for the company. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on PG&E in a research note on Monday, October 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $24.00 target price on the stock. Mizuho raised their price target on PG&E from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on PG&E from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, PG&E presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.64.

Insider Activity

In other PG&E news, CEO Patricia K. Poppe sold 55,555 shares of PG&E stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.66, for a total transaction of $1,147,766.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,460,222 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,168,186.52. The trade was a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

PG&E Price Performance

Shares of PCG stock opened at $16.52 on Friday. PG&E Co. has a twelve month low of $15.94 and a twelve month high of $21.72. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $19.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $19.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $5.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.58 billion. PG&E had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 12.51%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.24 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that PG&E Co. will post 1.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PG&E Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a $0.025 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. This is a boost from PG&E’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.01. This represents a $0.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.61%. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.81%.

PG&E 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.