California Public Employees Retirement System Increases Position in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

California Public Employees Retirement System increased its stake in shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 83.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,269,687 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,943,282 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned about 0.58% of PPL worth $115,709,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. DAVENPORT & Co LLC raised its stake in shares of PPL by 1.1% during the third quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 69,099 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,628,000 after purchasing an additional 748 shares during the last quarter. Royal Fund Management LLC raised its position in PPL by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Royal Fund Management LLC now owns 31,799 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $749,000 after buying an additional 1,633 shares during the last quarter. Oak Thistle LLC acquired a new stake in shares of PPL in the 3rd quarter worth $1,142,000. Czech National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of PPL by 47.6% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 128,828 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,035,000 after acquiring an additional 41,574 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Spirit of America Management Corp NY increased its stake in shares of PPL by 23.0% during the third quarter. Spirit of America Management Corp NY now owns 41,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $978,000 after acquiring an additional 7,750 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

PPL Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of PPL opened at $27.24 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $26.86 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.25. PPL Co. has a 1-year low of $22.20 and a 1-year high of $29.03. The stock has a market cap of $20.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.81.

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

PPL Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a dividend of $0.2575 per share. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.78%. This is a boost from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 103.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PPL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays raised their price objective 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. Argus upgraded PPL from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on PPL from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Bank of America raised their target price on PPL from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, TheStreet cut shares of PPL from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $32.50.

PPL Company 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.