Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) Cut to Sell at StockNews.com

Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) was downgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on POR. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Portland General Electric from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Bank of America cut their target price on Portland General Electric from $46.00 to $43.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 24th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on Portland General Electric from $47.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH cut shares of Portland General Electric from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $42.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $47.00 target price (down from $52.00) on shares of Portland General Electric in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $47.00.

Portland General Electric Stock Performance

Portland General Electric stock traded down $0.33 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $44.30. The company had a trading volume of 1,897,739 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,015,519. Portland General Electric has a one year low of $40.05 and a one year high of $49.85. The firm has a market cap of $4.85 billion, a PE ratio of 14.72, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.55. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $43.25 and a 200 day moving average of $44.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.81.

Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The utilities provider reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.01. Portland General Electric had a return on equity of 9.10% and a net margin of 9.13%. The company had revenue of $824.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.17 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.67 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Portland General Electric will post 3.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Portland General Electric

In other news, CFO Joseph R. Trpik, Jr. sold 1,375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.32, for a total transaction of $56,815.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,960 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,320,587.20. This represents a 4.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Portland General Electric

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Menard Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Portland General Electric by 32.3% during the fourth quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 5,648 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $246,000 after purchasing an additional 1,378 shares in the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in Portland General Electric in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $6,451,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its holdings in Portland General Electric by 145.1% in the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 16,856 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $735,000 after buying an additional 9,980 shares during the last quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. boosted its position in Portland General Electric by 10.7% during the 4th quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. now owns 9,541 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $416,000 after buying an additional 924 shares during the period. Finally, PharVision Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Portland General Electric during the 4th quarter worth approximately $272,000.

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, 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.