Traders Purchase Large Volume of PG&E Call Options (NYSE:PCG)

PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG - Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Traders acquired 88,612 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 246% compared to the typical daily volume of 25,587 call options.

Insider Activity at PG&E

In other news, Director Arno Lockheart Harris purchased 6,389 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $15.66 per share, with a total value of $100,051.74. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 14,864 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $232,770.24. This trade represents a 75.39 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Carla J. Peterman sold 32,521 shares of PG&E stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.37, for a total value of $532,368.77. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 183,635 shares in the company, valued at $3,006,104.95. This represents a 15.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PG&E

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of PG&E by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,692,521 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $112,541,000 after buying an additional 420,133 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in PG&E in the third quarter valued at $349,000. Tidal Investments LLC grew its position in PG&E by 4.7% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 55,938 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,106,000 after acquiring an additional 2,527 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in PG&E by 4.1% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 17,116,725 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $346,443,000 after acquiring an additional 681,369 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of PG&E by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,722,110 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $53,816,000 after purchasing an additional 169,503 shares during the period. 78.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group downgraded PG&E from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their price target for the company from $22.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of PG&E from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Guggenheim increased their price target on shares of PG&E from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of PG&E from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an "underweight" rating on shares of PG&E in a research report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, PG&E has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $21.32.

PG&E Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE PCG traded down $0.18 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $17.22. 2,612,738 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,394,839. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $16.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $18.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. The company has a market capitalization of $45.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.70. PG&E has a 52-week low of $14.99 and a 52-week high of $21.72.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.40 by ($0.07). The business had revenue of $5.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.23 billion. PG&E had a net margin of 10.27% and a return on equity of 10.94%. Equities research analysts expect that PG&E will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PG&E Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.025 per share. This represents a $0.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. PG&E's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.70%.

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.