Federated Hermes Inc. Trims Holdings in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

Federated Hermes Inc. lessened its stake in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 10.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,789,945 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 974,316 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. owned about 1.19% of PPL worth $238,208,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PPL. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in shares of PPL by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 60,166,843 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,672,037,000 after purchasing an additional 195,849 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in PPL by 4.8% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 42,759,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,229,596,000 after buying an additional 1,971,238 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of PPL by 13.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,390,818 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $339,048,000 after acquiring an additional 1,695,726 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of PPL by 6.4% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 12,884,134 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $367,969,000 after acquiring an additional 775,294 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in PPL by 13,891.2% during the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 11,724,495 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $276,229,000 after purchasing an additional 11,640,696 shares during the last quarter. 76.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

PPL Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of PPL stock traded up $0.03 on Thursday, reaching $26.45. 759,075 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,950,496. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. PPL Co. has a fifty-two week low of $22.20 and a fifty-two week high of $29.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.81. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $26.78 and a 200-day moving average price of $26.11.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.56 billion. PPL had a net margin of 8.90% and a return on equity of 8.45%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.28 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that PPL Co. will post 1.7 EPS for the current year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a dividend of $0.2575 per share. This is an increase from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. PPL’s payout ratio is 103.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Argus raised shares of PPL from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, March 8th. StockNews.com lowered shares of PPL from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 24th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on PPL from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of PPL from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, PPL has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.50.

PPL Profile

PPL Corporation, an energy company, focuses on providing electricity and natural gas to approximately 3.6 million customers in the United States. It operates through three segments: Kentucky Regulated, Pennsylvania Regulated, and Rhode Island Regulated. The company delivers electricity to customers in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, and Rhode Island; delivers natural gas to customers in Kentucky and Rhode Island; and generates electricity from power plants in Kentucky.