PPL Corporation $PPL Shares Acquired by Allstate Corp

Allstate Corp grew its stake in PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) by 101.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 54,701 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 27,538 shares during the quarter. Allstate Corp’s holdings in PPL were worth $1,916,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. grew its position in shares of PPL by 13.5% in the third quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 4,336,283 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $161,136,000 after purchasing an additional 515,523 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in shares of PPL by 905.7% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 523,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $18,342,000 after purchasing an additional 471,679 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP grew its position in shares of PPL by 59.5% in the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 452,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,823,000 after purchasing an additional 168,818 shares during the period. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA lifted its stake in shares of PPL by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA now owns 348,335 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,199,000 after buying an additional 25,172 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY lifted its stake in shares of PPL by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 344,670 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,070,000 after buying an additional 18,840 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

PPL Price Performance

PPL stock opened at $35.33 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $37.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.65. The company has a market capitalization of $26.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.60. PPL Corporation has a 1 year low of $33.17 and a 1 year high of $40.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.00.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.51 billion. PPL had a net margin of 13.09% and a return on equity of 9.41%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that PPL Corporation will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

PPL Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 10th will be issued a $0.285 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 10th. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. PPL’s payout ratio is 69.51%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PPL has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Seaport Research Partners set a $42.00 price target on shares of PPL in a research note on Monday, April 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of PPL from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of PPL from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 16th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of PPL from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.83.

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.