Brokerages Set PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) PT at $41.50

Shares of PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) have been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the thirteen brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $41.6667.

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on PPL. Barclays lifted their price objective on PPL from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on PPL from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a report on Thursday, June 4th.

PPL Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:PPL opened at $35.73 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $35.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.79. The company has a market cap of $26.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.57. PPL has a 12 month low of $33.17 and a 12 month high of $40.10.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last posted its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. PPL had a return on equity of 9.41% and a net margin of 13.09%.The company had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.51 billion. PPL’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that PPL will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

PPL Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 10th were given a dividend of $0.285 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 10th. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.2%. PPL’s payout ratio is currently 69.51%.

Insider Activity

In other PPL news, Director John W. Raymond sold 6,494 shares of PPL stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.16, for a total transaction of $169,883.04. Following the sale, the director directly owned 37,114 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $970,902.24. The trade was a 14.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO William Spencer Marshall sold 200,000 shares of PPL stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.92, for a total value of $5,184,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,703,115 shares in the company, valued at approximately $70,064,740.80. The trade was a 6.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.34% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in PPL by 905.7% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 523,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $18,342,000 after purchasing an additional 471,679 shares during the period. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA lifted its position in PPL by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA now owns 348,335 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,199,000 after buying an additional 25,172 shares during the period. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY lifted its position in PPL by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 344,670 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,070,000 after buying an additional 18,840 shares during the period. Allstate Corp boosted its holdings in shares of PPL by 101.4% during the 4th quarter. Allstate Corp now owns 54,701 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,916,000 after buying an additional 27,538 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Reaves W H & Co. Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of PPL by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 4,424,814 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $154,957,000 after buying an additional 88,531 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

PPL Company Profile

PPL Corporation is an energy company that owns and operates electric transmission and distribution infrastructure and provides related customer services. The company’s core business centers on delivering electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers through regulated utility operations, maintaining grid reliability, responding to outages and managing customer billing and account services.

PPL’s activities include construction and maintenance of distribution and transmission lines, meter and grid management, and programs to support energy efficiency and the interconnection of distributed resources.