PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $41.50.

Several brokerages have recently commented on PPL. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of PPL from $40.00 to $39.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 5th. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of PPL from $38.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of PPL from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 4th.

PPL Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of PPL stock opened at $35.80 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $26.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.83, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.57. PPL has a one year low of $33.17 and a one year high of $40.10. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $37.05 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. PPL had a net margin of 13.09% and a return on equity of 9.41%. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that PPL will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPL Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Trading of PPL

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its holdings in PPL by 6.3% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 11,124 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $425,000 after acquiring an additional 660 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Investment Advisors MI increased its holdings in PPL by 256.5% in the 1st quarter. Strategic Investment Advisors MI now owns 35,277 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,348,000 after acquiring an additional 25,382 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in PPL by 18.8% in the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,366 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $205,000 after acquiring an additional 849 shares during the last quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in PPL by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC now owns 49,157 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,723,000 after acquiring an additional 429 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in PPL in the 1st quarter valued at $224,000. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.