Principal Financial Group Inc. Acquires 169,503 Shares of PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG - Free Report) by 6.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,722,110 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 169,503 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.10% of PG&E worth $53,816,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in PCG. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of PG&E by 98.5% in the third quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,340 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $86,000 after acquiring an additional 2,154 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service boosted its holdings in PG&E by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 2,893,429 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $57,203,000 after purchasing an additional 85,983 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in shares of PG&E by 31.4% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,822,956 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $37,516,000 after purchasing an additional 435,170 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its holdings in shares of PG&E by 17.6% during the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 80,874 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,599,000 after purchasing an additional 12,092 shares during the period. Finally, Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of PG&E by 16.5% in the third quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 22,773 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $450,000 after buying an additional 3,230 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.56% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on PCG. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on PG&E from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Bank of America began coverage on PG&E in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $24.00 price target on the stock. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of PG&E from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of PG&E from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of PG&E from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $22.80.

Insider Transactions at PG&E

In related news, VP Stephanie N. Williams sold 38,601 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.32, for a total value of $707,170.32. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 19,114 shares in the company, valued at $350,168.48. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.15% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

PG&E Price Performance

PG&E stock traded up $0.49 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $21.09. The company had a trading volume of 11,786,382 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,803,301. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $20.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of $18.76. The company has a market cap of $55.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.03. PG&E Co. has a fifty-two week low of $15.94 and a fifty-two week high of $21.15. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $5.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.58 billion. PG&E had a return on equity of 12.65% and a net margin of 11.11%. PG&E's quarterly revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.24 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that PG&E Co. will post 1.36 earnings per share for the current year.

PG&E Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a dividend of $0.01 per share. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.19%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. PG&E's payout ratio is currently 3.13%.

PG&E Company 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.