BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S Boosts Stock Position in PPL Corporation $PPL

BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S increased its holdings in PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) by 65.5% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 53,562 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 21,198 shares during the period. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S’s holdings in PPL were worth $2,046,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of PPL. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in PPL by 905.7% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 523,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $18,342,000 after buying an additional 471,679 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of PPL by 59.5% during 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 buying an additional 168,818 shares during the period. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA increased its stake in shares of PPL by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA now owns 348,335 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,199,000 after buying an additional 25,172 shares during the period. Allstate Corp raised its holdings in shares of PPL by 101.4% during the fourth quarter. Allstate Corp now owns 54,701 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,916,000 after acquiring an additional 27,538 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY raised its holdings in shares of PPL by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 344,670 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,070,000 after acquiring an additional 18,840 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Seaport Research Partners set a $42.00 price target on PPL in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of PPL from $41.00 to $39.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 11th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, PPL has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $41.50.

PPL Stock Up 2.0%

Shares of NYSE:PPL opened at $36.30 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.00. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $36.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.55. PPL Corporation has a 52-week low of $33.17 and a 52-week high of $40.10.

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

PPL Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th will be given a dividend of $0.285 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 10th. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 69.51%.

PPL 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.