Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Pacific Gas & Electric (NYSE:PCG)

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (NYSE:PCG) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors acquired 160,216 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 100% compared to the average volume of 80,041 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pacific Gas & Electric

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PCG. Sessa Capital IM L.P. purchased a new position in Pacific Gas & Electric in the 1st quarter worth about $320,984,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its stake in Pacific Gas & Electric by 352.3% in the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 19,172,519 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $329,384,000 after purchasing an additional 14,933,364 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Pacific Gas & Electric by 317.2% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 16,464,333 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $280,305,000 after purchasing an additional 12,518,011 shares in the last quarter. ATLAS Infrastructure Partners UK Ltd. increased its stake in Pacific Gas & Electric by 193.4% in the 1st quarter. ATLAS Infrastructure Partners UK Ltd. now owns 10,428,328 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $179,159,000 after purchasing an additional 6,873,576 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Pacific Gas & Electric by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 257,285,352 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,420,162,000 after purchasing an additional 2,926,384 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on PCG shares. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Pacific Gas & Electric from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Pacific Gas & Electric from $19.00 to $17.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Argus upgraded shares of Pacific Gas & Electric to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Pacific Gas & Electric from $20.00 to $19.50 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Pacific Gas & Electric from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $20.25.

Pacific Gas & Electric Price Performance

NYSE:PCG opened at $15.66 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $14.96 and its 200 day moving average price is $15.56. The firm has a market cap of $41.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.36, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.58. Pacific Gas & Electric has a 52-week low of $12.97 and a 52-week high of $21.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81.

Pacific Gas & Electric (NYSE:PCG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $5.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.37 billion. Pacific Gas & Electric had a return on equity of 10.13% and a net margin of 9.95%.Pacific Gas & Electric’s revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.31 earnings per share. Pacific Gas & Electric has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.480-1.520 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Pacific Gas & Electric will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pacific Gas & Electric Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 30th will be paid a $0.025 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 30th. This represents a $0.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. Pacific Gas & Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.17%.

About Pacific Gas & Electric

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.