Principal Financial Group Inc. Purchases 110,887 Shares of PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG - Free Report) by 4.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 2,832,997 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 110,887 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.11% of PG&E worth $57,170,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP grew its stake in PG&E by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP now owns 13,131 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $265,000 after acquiring an additional 1,050 shares during the period. Sierra Ocean LLC acquired a new position in shares of PG&E in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $111,000. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in PG&E by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 271,743 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $5,484,000 after purchasing an additional 2,715 shares in the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. raised its holdings in PG&E by 66.3% during the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 22,594 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $456,000 after buying an additional 9,009 shares during the period. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers increased its holdings in PG&E by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 4,248,558 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $85,736,000 after purchasing an additional 228,099 shares in the last quarter. 78.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

PG&E Stock Performance

PG&E stock traded up $0.25 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $15.94. The company's stock had a trading volume of 32,045,884 shares, compared to its average volume of 28,269,914. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The company has a market cap of $42.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.86, a PEG ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.99. PG&E Co. has a 1-year low of $14.99 and a 1-year high of $21.72. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $17.50 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $19.10.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.31. The company 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 period in the previous year, the business earned $0.47 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that PG&E Co. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

PG&E Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.025 per share. This represents a $0.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.63%. PG&E's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.70%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PCG has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lowered PG&E from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $20.00 to $16.50 in a report on Friday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an "overweight" rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of PG&E in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of PG&E from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Guggenheim lowered shares of PG&E from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of PG&E from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $22.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other PG&E news, CEO Patricia K. Poppe sold 55,555 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,460,222 shares in the company, valued at $30,168,186.52. This represents a 3.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.15% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.