PG&E soars after filing for bankruptcy protection

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• PG&E soared Tuesday after filing for bankruptcy protection. The company is the largest power utility in the US.
• PG&E endured an estimated $16.5 billion in losses from the unprecedented California Camp Fire last year.
• Watch PG&E trade live.

PG&E, the largest power utility in the US, soared 17% Tuesday after filing for bankruptcy protection.

PG&E is estimated to have lost $16.5 billion in total from last year's unprecedented Camp fire in California. Reinsurance company Munich Re pegged the fire as the world's most expensive natural disaster of 2018, Reuters reported.

Read more: Climate change just claimed its first bankruptcy - PG&E succumbs to fallout from the world's most expensive natural disaster of 2018

"We believe the process is likely to be lengthy," UBS analyst Daniel Ford told clients in a note out Tuesday. "There are a wide range of outcomes from PG&E being a solvent creditor with some equity value intact to little or no equity value." He maintained his $8 per share price target and "neutral" rating.

Shares of PG&E plunged earlier this month after the company announced it planned to file for bankruptcy protection; the utility was accused of having been negligent in the devastating Camp fire. Since the stock's 52-week high of $49.42 a share in early November, the stock has lost 71% of its market value.

The Camp Fire was the the deadliest and most destructive in California's history, killing 88 people, according to Reuters. The wildfire caused insurers more than $11.4 billion in losses, the California Insurance Commissioner said Monday.

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