15 Dividend Stocks With Low Payout Ratios and Strong Upside

4. PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 79

5-Year Average Payout Ratio: 2.11%

Upside Potential as of December 24: 33.6%

PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG) is among the best dividend stocks to invest in.

On December 16, Morgan Stanley lowered the firm’s price target on PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG) to $20 from $21 and kept an Equal Weight rating on the shares. Utility performance will be heavily driven by data centers and growth upside in 2026, the analyst told investors in a year-ahead note.

Around the same time, the company shared an operational update. On December 11, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), announced the successful launch of its Dynamic Line Rating (DLR) and Asset Health Monitoring (AHM) technology demonstration. The project combines advanced sensors, real-time analytics, and partner solutions to enhance the utilization and monitoring of transmission lines.

PG&E and its partners recently completed hardware field installations and vendor dashboard setups. That work moved the project into trial deployment across all technologies. This step fits into a broader strategy. The company is working to expand and upgrade substations and transmission lines, ease congestion, and maintain reliable service during extreme weather events like heat waves and high winds.

DLR technology changes how line capacity is calculated. It uses live weather data, including temperature and wind, to determine how much electricity a power line can safely carry. Instead of fixed limits, capacity adjusts as conditions change. That allows more power to move through existing lines without building new ones.

By testing and validating DLR and AHM tools, PG&E is looking to modernize the grid in practical ways. The goal is to unlock unused capacity, improve reliability, and support more renewable energy. Doing so can also lower costs for customers by making better use of existing infrastructure rather than relying on more expensive upgrades.

PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG) is a holding company based in Oakland, California. It is the parent of Pacific Gas and Electric Company, which provides energy service to about 16 million people across a 70,000-square-mile area in Northern and Central California.