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

PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) was the target of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Traders acquired 51,272 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 131% compared to the average volume of 22,182 call options.

Insider Activity at PG&E

In other PG&E news, EVP Carla J. Peterman sold 32,519 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.30, for a total transaction of $562,578.70. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 151,116 shares in the company, valued at $2,614,306.80. This trade represents a 17.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.14% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PG&E

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of PG&E by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 257,285,352 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,420,162,000 after buying an additional 2,926,384 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of PG&E by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,988,553 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,046,462,000 after buying an additional 2,151,494 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of PG&E by 70.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 46,805,768 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $944,540,000 after buying an additional 19,317,171 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in PG&E in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $591,625,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in PG&E by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 19,944,322 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $342,643,000 after purchasing an additional 818,377 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.56% of the company’s stock.

PG&E Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of NYSE:PCG opened at $14.29 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.00. PG&E has a 1 year low of $14.01 and a 1 year high of $21.72. The company has a market capitalization of $38.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.60. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $16.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.36.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.35 by ($0.02). PG&E had a net margin of 10.27% and a return on equity of 10.94%. The firm had revenue of $5.98 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.23 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.37 earnings per share. PG&E’s quarterly revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that PG&E will post 1.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PG&E Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be issued a $0.025 dividend. This represents a $0.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.17%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PCG has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating and set a $24.00 price objective on shares of PG&E in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley set a $18.00 price objective on shares of PG&E and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. UBS Group downgraded shares of PG&E from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $22.00 to $19.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of PG&E from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of PG&E from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $20.75.

About PG&E

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.