Steph & Co. Purchases Shares of 9,245 PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

Steph & Co. bought a new position in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 9,245 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $255,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of PPL by 55.6% in the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 3,397 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $92,000 after acquiring an additional 1,214 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its holdings in shares of PPL by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 171,908 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,050,000 after buying an additional 9,905 shares during the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of PPL in the 4th quarter worth about $35,000. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its holdings in shares of PPL by 13.6% in the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,498,429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,303,000 after buying an additional 178,898 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp boosted its holdings in shares of PPL by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 86,593 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,348,000 after buying an additional 4,416 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

PPL Price Performance

Shares of PPL stock traded up $0.22 on Monday, reaching $28.18. The stock had a trading volume of 759,064 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,857,556. PPL Co. has a 1 year low of $22.20 and a 1 year high of $29.89. The company has a market cap of $20.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The business’s 50 day moving average is $28.26 and its two-hundred day moving average is $27.26.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.39 billion. PPL had a net margin of 9.29% and a return on equity of 8.80%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.48 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that PPL Co. will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 1st. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th will be given a $0.2575 dividend. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.66%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 100.00%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PPL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of PPL from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of PPL from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of PPL from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Argus raised shares of PPL from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, March 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of PPL from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.45.

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.