Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Increases Stake in Pacific Gas & Electric Co. $PCG

Key Points

• Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC has increased its stake in Pacific Gas & Electric Co. by 18.7%, acquiring an additional 302,799 shares, bringing its total ownership to about 1.92 million shares worth approximately $32.98 million.
• Institutional investors collectively own 78.56% of Pacific Gas & Electric, with several hedge funds, including Federated Hermes and Guggenheim Capital, significantly increasing their positions in the utility company.
• Pacific Gas & Electric reported earnings of $0.31 per share for the last quarter, missing analyst expectations, while also declaring a quarterly dividend of $0.025 per share with a 0.7% dividend yield.

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (NYSE:PCG - Free Report) by 18.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,919,829 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 302,799 shares during the quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC owned 0.07% of Pacific Gas & Electric worth $32,983,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in Pacific Gas & Electric by 70.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 46,805,768 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $944,540,000 after acquiring an additional 19,317,171 shares during the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP boosted its position in shares of Pacific Gas & Electric by 84.9% during the 4th quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 12,661,324 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $255,506,000 after acquiring an additional 5,814,624 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Pacific Gas & Electric 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 acquiring an additional 2,926,384 shares in the last quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI boosted its position in shares of Pacific Gas & Electric by 272.5% in the 4th quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI now owns 3,560,305 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $71,847,000 after purchasing an additional 2,604,445 shares during the period. Finally, BROOKFIELD Corp ON lifted its position in Pacific Gas & Electric by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 14,692,444 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $296,494,000 after acquiring an additional 2,049,359 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 78.56% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on PCG. Barclays cut their price objective on Pacific Gas & Electric from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Pacific Gas & Electric from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Guggenheim lifted their target price on shares of Pacific Gas & Electric from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Argus raised shares of Pacific Gas & Electric to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Pacific Gas & Electric from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $20.55.

Pacific Gas & Electric Trading Down 1.8%

Pacific Gas & Electric stock traded down $0.28 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $15.03. 29,242,219 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 26,512,566. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $14.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $15.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.89. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has a 52-week low of $12.97 and a 52-week high of $21.72.

Pacific Gas & Electric (NYSE:PCG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.33 by ($0.02). Pacific Gas & Electric had a return on equity of 10.13% and a net margin of 9.95%. The firm had revenue of $5.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $6.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.31 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Pacific Gas & Electric Co. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pacific Gas & Electric Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 30th were issued a dividend of $0.025 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 30th. This represents a $0.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Pacific Gas & Electric's dividend payout ratio is currently 9.17%.

Pacific Gas & Electric 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.