First National Bank & Trust Co. of Newtown Lowers Stake in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

First National Bank & Trust Co. of Newtown lessened its position in shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 4.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,527 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 856 shares during the period. First National Bank & Trust Co. of Newtown’s holdings in PPL were worth $475,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PPL. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its position in PPL by 13,891.2% during the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 11,724,495 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $276,229,000 after acquiring an additional 11,640,696 shares during the period. Zimmer Partners LP grew its position in PPL by 70.0% during the second quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 5,950,405 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $157,448,000 after acquiring an additional 2,450,405 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in PPL by 4.8% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 42,759,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,229,596,000 after acquiring an additional 1,971,238 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in PPL during the fourth quarter valued at about $50,783,000. Finally, FMR LLC grew its position in PPL by 13.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,390,818 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $339,048,000 after acquiring an additional 1,695,726 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com downgraded PPL from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 24th. TheStreet downgraded PPL from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on PPL from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Barclays upped their target price on PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on PPL from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, PPL currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $32.50.

PPL Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE:PPL traded up $0.33 during trading on Friday, hitting $26.95. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,258,727 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,934,800. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.88. PPL Co. has a fifty-two week low of $22.20 and a fifty-two week high of $29.03. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $26.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $26.11. The company has a market capitalization of $19.88 billion, a PE ratio of 26.62, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.81.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.02. PPL had a return on equity of 8.45% and a net margin of 8.90%. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.28 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that PPL Co. will post 1.7 EPS for the current year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a dividend of $0.2575 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.82%. This is a boost from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. PPL’s dividend payout ratio is presently 103.00%.

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.