Portland General Electric Company $POR Shares Bought by Clearbridge Investments LLC

Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in Portland General Electric Company (NYSE:POR) by 1,342.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,643,134 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,321,305 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC owned 4.13% of Portland General Electric worth $222,824,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Portland General Electric by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,020,573 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $624,857,000 after acquiring an additional 513,517 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Portland General Electric by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,551,369 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $187,200,000 after purchasing an additional 107,717 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Portland General Electric by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,805,796 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $134,680,000 after purchasing an additional 73,185 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Portland General Electric by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,569,082 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $113,040,000 after purchasing an additional 119,122 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Portland General Electric by 34.1% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,497,281 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $109,381,000 after purchasing an additional 634,890 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on POR shares. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Portland General Electric from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 19th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Portland General Electric in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $51.00 target price on shares of Portland General Electric in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Portland General Electric from $51.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Portland General Electric in a report on Friday, May 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $51.00.

Portland General Electric Stock Down 0.0%

POR stock opened at $50.51 on Monday. Portland General Electric Company has a 52-week low of $39.54 and a 52-week high of $54.62. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $50.84 and its 200-day simple moving average is $50.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.52.

Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by ($0.19). Portland General Electric had a net margin of 7.12% and a return on equity of 7.57%. The firm had revenue of $879.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $953.24 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.91 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Portland General Electric Company will post 3.39 EPS for the current year.

Portland General Electric Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.5513 per share. This is an increase from Portland General Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.53. This represents a $2.21 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.4%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 25th. Portland General Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 93.75%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Robert N. Hoglund purchased 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 11th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $48.80 per share, for a total transaction of $97,600.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 2,519 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $122,927.20. The trade was a 385.36% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Joseph R. Trpik, Jr. sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.03, for a total transaction of $367,725.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 31,897 shares in the company, valued at $1,563,909.91. This represents a 19.04% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Portland General Electric

Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) is an investor-owned electric utility headquartered in Tigard, Oregon, with roots tracing back to the late 19th century. The company generates, transmits and distributes electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers across a broad territory in Oregon, primarily encompassing the Portland metropolitan area and surrounding regions.

As one of Oregon’s largest electric utilities, Portland General Electric operates a diverse portfolio of generation assets, including hydroelectric facilities, natural gas–fired plants and renewable energy sources.