PPL (NYSE:PPL) Price Target Raised to $45.00

PPL (NYSE:PPL) had its price target lifted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $42.00 to $45.00 in a report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on PPL. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of PPL from $40.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of PPL from $40.00 to $39.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of PPL from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.92.

PPL Stock Performance

PPL stock opened at $35.83 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.96 billion, a PE ratio of 21.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.57. PPL has a 12-month low of $33.17 and a 12-month high of $40.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.79.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last issued its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. PPL had a return on equity of 9.41% and a net margin of 13.09%.The company’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that PPL will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PPL Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at PPL

In other PPL news, Director John W. Raymond sold 6,494 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.16, for a total transaction of $169,883.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 37,114 shares in the company, valued at $970,902.24. The trade was a 14.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO William Spencer Marshall sold 200,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.92, for a total transaction of $5,184,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,703,115 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $70,064,740.80. The trade was a 6.89% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 243,601 shares of company stock valued at $6,283,413. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PPL. Empowered Funds LLC raised its holdings in PPL by 39.5% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 19,166 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $692,000 after purchasing an additional 5,428 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP increased its position in PPL by 40.7% in the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 62,375 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,252,000 after buying an additional 18,057 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth increased its position in PPL by 13.0% in the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 26,861 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $971,000 after buying an additional 3,084 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in PPL by 64.9% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,695 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $159,000 after acquiring an additional 1,848 shares during the period. Finally, Cary Street Partners Financial LLC raised its stake in PPL by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 5,299 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $180,000 after acquiring an additional 343 shares during the period. 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.