Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) Upgraded to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning.

POR has been the topic of several other reports. TheStreet lowered shares of Portland General Electric from a b- rating to a c+ rating in a report on Wednesday, September 13th. 58.com reaffirmed a downgrade rating on shares of Portland General Electric in a report on Tuesday, June 20th. Guggenheim raised shares of Portland General Electric from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $48.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, August 18th. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Portland General Electric from $56.00 to $52.00 in a report on Thursday, June 22nd. Finally, Barclays began coverage on shares of Portland General Electric in a report on Wednesday, August 23rd. They set an equal weight rating and a $43.00 price target on the stock. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $49.25.

Portland General Electric Price Performance

POR stock opened at $44.18 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. Portland General Electric has a 12 month low of $41.58 and a 12 month high of $51.58. The firm has a market cap of $4.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.56. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $45.69 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $47.72.

Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) last released its earnings results on Friday, July 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.49 by ($0.05). Portland General Electric had a net margin of 7.82% and a return on equity of 8.03%. The firm had revenue of $648.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $571.82 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.72 earnings per share. Portland General Electric’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Portland General Electric will post 2.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Portland General Electric Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 25th will be given a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 22nd. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.30%. Portland General Electric’s dividend payout ratio is presently 79.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Anne Frances Mersereau sold 10,891 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.16, for a total value of $480,946.56. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 7,071 shares in the company, valued at approximately $312,255.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.51% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of POR. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in Portland General Electric by 8.4% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 12,672,161 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $593,437,000 after buying an additional 986,445 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Portland General Electric by 8.1% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,268,761 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $489,739,000 after acquiring an additional 848,958 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Portland General Electric by 21.8% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,067,961 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $334,647,000 after acquiring an additional 1,087,996 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Portland General Electric by 18.4% in the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,269,606 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $209,211,000 after purchasing an additional 663,996 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Portland General Electric by 5.1% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,615,988 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $170,996,000 after purchasing an additional 174,695 shares during the last quarter.

Portland General Electric Company Profile

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, 2022, the company owned an electric transmission system consisting of 1,255 circuit miles, including 269 circuit miles of 500 kilovolt line, 413 circuit miles of 230 kilovolt line, and 573 miles of 115 kilovolt line; and served 926 thousand retail customers in 51 cities.