Bison Wealth LLC Buys 597 Shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

Bison Wealth LLC increased its stake in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 23,142 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 597 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC’s holdings in PPL were worth $627,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of PPL. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in shares of PPL by 0.3% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 60,166,843 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,672,037,000 after acquiring an additional 195,849 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in PPL by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 42,759,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,229,596,000 after buying an additional 1,971,238 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in PPL by 13.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,390,818 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $339,048,000 after buying an additional 1,695,726 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of PPL by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 12,884,134 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $367,969,000 after purchasing an additional 775,294 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of PPL by 13,891.2% during the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 11,724,495 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $276,229,000 after purchasing an additional 11,640,696 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

PPL Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE PPL opened at $26.43 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.88. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $26.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $26.09. PPL Co. has a 52-week low of $22.20 and a 52-week high of $29.03. The company has a market cap of $19.49 billion, a PE ratio of 26.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.81.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.02. PPL had a net margin of 8.90% and a return on equity of 8.45%. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.28 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that PPL Co. will post 1.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a $0.2575 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This is a boost from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.90%. PPL’s dividend payout ratio is 103.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on PPL shares. Argus upgraded shares of PPL from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of PPL from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. StockNews.com lowered shares of PPL from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 24th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of PPL from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, PPL has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $32.50.

PPL Profile

PPL Corporation, an energy company, focuses on providing electricity and natural gas to approximately 3.6 million customers in the United States. It operates through three segments: Kentucky Regulated, Pennsylvania Regulated, and Rhode Island Regulated. The company delivers electricity to customers in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, and Rhode Island; delivers natural gas to customers in Kentucky and Rhode Island; and generates electricity from power plants in Kentucky.