PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) Shares Bought by Global Retirement Partners LLC

Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 65.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 11,087 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,372 shares during the period. Global Retirement Partners LLC’s holdings in PPL were worth $297,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of PPL by 13,891.2% in the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 11,724,495 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $276,229,000 after acquiring an additional 11,640,696 shares during the period. Zimmer Partners LP increased its holdings in shares of PPL by 70.0% in the 2nd quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 5,950,405 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $157,448,000 after acquiring an additional 2,450,405 shares during the period. Scout Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of PPL in the 2nd quarter worth about $63,244,000. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of PPL by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 42,759,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,229,596,000 after acquiring an additional 1,971,238 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of PPL in the 4th quarter worth about $50,783,000. 76.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PPL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of PPL from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. 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 research note on Friday, March 8th. TheStreet cut shares of PPL from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $30.00 target price on shares of PPL in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $32.67.

PPL Stock Performance

NYSE:PPL opened at $27.48 on Wednesday. PPL Co. has a twelve month low of $22.20 and a twelve month high of $29.03. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The company has a 50-day moving average of $26.52 and a 200-day moving average of $25.94. The firm has a market cap of $20.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.81.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.02. PPL had a net margin of 8.90% and a return on equity of 8.45%. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that PPL Co. will post 1.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were given a $0.2575 dividend. This is an increase from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.75%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 103.00%.

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.