Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd Buys 60,525 Shares of PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd grew its stake in shares of PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) by 379.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 76,494 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 60,525 shares during the quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd’s holdings in PG&E were worth $1,379,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Artemis Investment Management LLP lifted its stake in shares of PG&E by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 7,598,807 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $137,009,000 after buying an additional 446,848 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its stake in shares of PG&E by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 922,856 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,639,000 after buying an additional 76,178 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of PG&E by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 1,987,389 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $32,057,000 after buying an additional 162,476 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lifted its stake in shares of PG&E by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 881,981 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $14,226,000 after buying an additional 66,364 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new stake in shares of PG&E during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,775,000. 78.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at PG&E

In other news, CEO Patricia K. Poppe sold 59,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.08, for a total value of $1,007,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,515,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,889,471.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on PCG. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of PG&E from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of PG&E from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of PG&E from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Barclays increased their target price on shares of PG&E from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of PG&E in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $21.00 price objective on the stock. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, PG&E presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $19.44.

PG&E Trading Up 0.9 %

PG&E stock traded up $0.16 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $18.54. The stock had a trading volume of 994,913 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,938,165. The stock has a market cap of $53.38 billion, a PE ratio of 16.41 and a beta of 1.26. PG&E Co. has a 52 week low of $14.71 and a 52 week high of $18.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $17.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.12.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $5.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.60 billion. PG&E had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 11.32%. The company’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.29 EPS. Analysts forecast that PG&E Co. will post 1.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PG&E Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be given a $0.01 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.22%. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio is 3.57%.

PG&E 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.