PPL (NYSE:PPL) Stock Price Passes Above 200-Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL)’s stock price crossed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Friday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of $36.09 and traded as high as $36.24. PPL shares last traded at $35.95, with a volume of 9,732,638 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of PPL from $40.00 to $37.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. BTIG Research upgraded shares of PPL to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of PPL from $38.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on PPL from $43.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, PPL currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.50.

PPL Stock Performance

The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $35.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.09. The company has a market capitalization of $26.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.77.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.02. PPL had a net margin of 12.16% and a return on equity of 9.08%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.42 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that PPL Corporation will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 10th were issued a dividend of $0.2725 per share. This represents a $1.09 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 10th. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 73.65%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PPL

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PPL. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. boosted its holdings in PPL by 4.5% in the third quarter. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. now owns 6,924 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $257,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of PPL by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 9,325 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $347,000 after buying an additional 341 shares during the period. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC grew its position in shares of PPL by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 5,299 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $180,000 after buying an additional 343 shares during the last quarter. Busey Bank raised its stake in PPL by 6.2% during the fourth quarter. Busey Bank now owns 6,005 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $210,000 after acquiring an additional 351 shares during the period. Finally, Huntington National Bank raised its stake in PPL by 1.1% during the second quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 37,076 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,257,000 after acquiring an additional 408 shares during the period. 76.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.