Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. Invests $221,000 in Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR)

Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 5,100 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $221,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of POR. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of Portland General Electric by 17.4% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 14,034 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $774,000 after acquiring an additional 2,083 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. grew its position in shares of Portland General Electric by 58.9% during the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 46,899 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,586,000 after acquiring an additional 17,386 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can purchased a new position in Portland General Electric in the 1st quarter valued at $239,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Portland General Electric in the 1st quarter valued at $460,000. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC grew its position in Portland General Electric by 55.0% in the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 47,232 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,605,000 after buying an additional 16,750 shares during the last quarter.

Insider Transactions at Portland General Electric

In other news, COO Benjamin Felton sold 3,500 shares of Portland General Electric stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.60, for a total transaction of $142,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 31,950 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,297,170. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Portland General Electric from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Portland General Electric from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $47.00 to $45.00 in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Mizuho reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $42.00 price objective (down from $43.00) on shares of Portland General Electric in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Bank of America lowered shares of Portland General Electric from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $43.00 in a research report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Portland General Electric from $45.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.13.

Portland General Electric Price Performance

Portland General Electric stock traded up $1.06 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $42.80. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 900,248 shares, compared to its average volume of 835,578. Portland General Electric has a fifty-two week low of $38.01 and a fifty-two week high of $51.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.84. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.33 billion, a PE ratio of 18.37 and a beta of 0.57.

Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by ($0.20). The business had revenue of $725.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $740.21 million. Portland General Electric had a net margin of 7.80% and a return on equity of 7.21%. Portland General Electric’s revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.70 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Portland General Electric will post 3.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Portland General Electric Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 24th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.67%. This is an increase from Portland General Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. Portland General Electric’s payout ratio is 81.55%.

About Portland General Electric

Portland General Electric Company, an integrated electric utility company, engages in the generation, wholesale purchase, transmission, distribution, and retail sale of electricity in the state of Oregon. It operates six thermal plants, three wind farms, and seven hydroelectric facilities. As of December 31, 2023, the company owned an electric transmission system consisting of 1,254 circuit miles, including 287 circuit miles of 500 kilovolt line, 413 circuit miles of 230 kilovolt line, and 554 miles of 115 kilovolt line; and served 934 thousand retail customers in 51 cities.