PPL (NYSE:PPL) Price Target Lowered to $39.00 at BMO Capital Markets

PPL (NYSE:PPL) had its price objective decreased by BMO Capital Markets from $40.00 to $39.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. BMO Capital Markets currently has an outperform rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of PPL from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of PPL from $41.00 to $39.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of PPL from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of PPL from $38.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, PPL currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.50.

PPL Stock Up 1.6%

Shares of PPL opened at $35.73 on Friday. PPL has a 52-week low of $33.17 and a 52-week high of $40.10. The company has a market capitalization of $26.88 billion, a PE ratio of 21.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.57. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27.

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

PPL Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th will be paid a $0.285 dividend. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 10th. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 69.51%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PPL

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in PPL by 6.3% in the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 11,124 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $425,000 after purchasing an additional 660 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Investment Advisors MI boosted its holdings in PPL by 256.5% in the first quarter. Strategic Investment Advisors MI now owns 35,277 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,348,000 after purchasing an additional 25,382 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in PPL by 18.8% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,366 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $205,000 after purchasing an additional 849 shares in the last quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in PPL by 0.9% in the first quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC now owns 49,157 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,723,000 after purchasing an additional 429 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in PPL in the first quarter valued at approximately $224,000. 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.