Van ECK Associates Corp Has $20.14 Million Stock Position in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG) by 13.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,117,226 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 132,803 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in PG&E were worth $20,143,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in PCG. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its holdings in PG&E by 11.9% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 78,775 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,271,000 after purchasing an additional 8,369 shares in the last quarter. Simplicity Solutions LLC increased its holdings in PG&E by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Simplicity Solutions LLC now owns 44,641 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $720,000 after purchasing an additional 1,535 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its holdings in PG&E by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 35,804 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $578,000 after purchasing an additional 1,156 shares in the last quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC increased its holdings in PG&E by 26.4% during the 3rd quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC now owns 1,175,494 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $18,961,000 after purchasing an additional 245,509 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in PG&E by 50.8% during the 3rd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 57,852 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $933,000 after purchasing an additional 19,480 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PCG has been the subject of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on PG&E in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $21.00 target price for the company. Barclays increased their target price on PG&E from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of PG&E from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of PG&E from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, PG&E has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.11.

PG&E Trading Down 0.9 %

PG&E stock opened at $17.11 on Wednesday. PG&E Co. has a one year low of $14.71 and a one year high of $18.32. The company has a market cap of $36.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.28 and a beta of 1.32. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $16.61 and a 200-day moving average of $16.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.93.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The utilities provider reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.02. PG&E had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 11.32%. The business had revenue of $5.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.60 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.29 EPS. PG&E’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that PG&E Co. will post 1.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PG&E Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th were paid a $0.01 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.23%. PG&E’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 3.57%.

About PG&E

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.