Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV Reduces Stock Position in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG)

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV reduced its stake in PG&E Co. (NYSE:PCG - Free Report) by 13.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 131,039 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 20,568 shares during the quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV's holdings in PG&E were worth $2,644,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in PG&E in the fourth quarter valued at about $591,625,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in PG&E by 70.3% in 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 purchasing an additional 19,317,171 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in PG&E by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 254,358,968 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $5,132,964,000 after purchasing an additional 6,151,233 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp increased its position in PG&E by 244.5% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 4,706,647 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $95,066,000 after buying an additional 3,340,599 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in PG&E by 4.3% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.56% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at PG&E

In other PG&E news, Director Arno Lockheart Harris purchased 6,389 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $15.66 per share, with a total value of $100,051.74. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 14,864 shares of the company's stock, valued at $232,770.24. The trade was a 75.39 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Carla J. Peterman sold 32,521 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.37, for a total transaction of $532,368.77. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 183,635 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,006,104.95. This trade represents a 15.05 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.14% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

PG&E Price Performance

Shares of PCG stock traded down $0.07 during trading on Friday, hitting $17.11. The company had a trading volume of 17,180,187 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,529,287. The stock's 50-day moving average is $16.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $18.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $45.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. PG&E Co. has a 52 week low of $14.99 and a 52 week high of $21.72.

PG&E (NYSE:PCG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The utilities provider reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.35 by ($0.02). PG&E had a return on equity of 10.94% and a net margin of 10.27%. The company had revenue of $5.98 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.23 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.37 EPS. PG&E's quarterly revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that PG&E Co. will post 1.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PG&E Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.025 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.58%. PG&E's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.17%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Barclays cut their price target on PG&E from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of PG&E from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $22.00 price target on shares of PG&E in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of PG&E from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Guggenheim increased their price objective on PG&E from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $21.13.

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.