PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) Shares Sold by SlateStone Wealth LLC

SlateStone Wealth LLC lessened its position in shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 4.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,219 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 442 shares during the period. SlateStone Wealth LLC’s holdings in PPL were worth $277,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PPL. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in PPL by 13,891.2% in the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 11,724,495 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $276,229,000 after purchasing an additional 11,640,696 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in PPL by 6.9% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,237,027 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $217,624,000 after purchasing an additional 592,279 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in PPL by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,850,818 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $161,405,000 after purchasing an additional 45,548 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC raised its position in PPL by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 4,749,317 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $113,044,000 after purchasing an additional 103,734 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. TheStreet downgraded shares of PPL from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of PPL from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 24th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of PPL from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Argus upgraded shares of PPL from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of PPL from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, PPL currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $32.50.

PPL Price Performance

Shares of PPL traded up $0.01 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $27.38. The company had a trading volume of 1,652,135 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,940,172. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $26.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.22. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The company has a market capitalization of $20.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.38, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.81. PPL Co. has a 12-month low of $22.20 and a 12-month high of $29.03.

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

PPL Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a $0.2575 dividend. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.76%. This is a boost from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. 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.