Hennessy Advisors Inc. Purchases 22,700 Shares of PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. grew its position in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) by 2.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 856,649 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 22,700 shares during the quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in PG&E were worth $17,287,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in PCG. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of PG&E by 68.3% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,543 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 626 shares in the last quarter. William B. Walkup & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of PG&E in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $74,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in PG&E by 77.7% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,195 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,000 after purchasing an additional 1,834 shares in the last quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in PG&E by 98.5% during the 3rd quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,340 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $86,000 after buying an additional 2,154 shares during the period. Finally, Huntington National Bank lifted its stake in PG&E by 32.9% in the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 4,831 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $96,000 after buying an additional 1,195 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.56% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at PG&E

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 value of $1,147,766.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,460,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,168,186.52. This represents a 3.67 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

PG&E Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:PCG opened at $16.95 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $20.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $19.45. The company has a market capitalization of $44.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.04. PG&E Co. has a 52-week low of $15.94 and a 52-week high of $21.72.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.05. PG&E had a return on equity of 12.51% and a net margin of 11.11%. The company had revenue of $5.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.58 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.24 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that PG&E Co. will post 1.36 earnings per share for the current year.

PG&E Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a $0.025 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from PG&E’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.01. This represents a $0.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.59%. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.81%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on PCG. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of PG&E from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on PG&E in a research note on Monday, October 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $24.00 price target on the stock. Mizuho upped their price objective on PG&E from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. UBS Group dropped their target price on PG&E from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on PG&E from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.64.

PG&E 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.