Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Sells 8,474 Shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund trimmed its stake in shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 362,347 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 8,474 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in PPL were worth $9,820,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its position 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 buying an additional 11,640,696 shares during the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System increased its stake in shares of PPL by 83.5% in the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 4,269,687 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $115,709,000 after buying an additional 1,943,282 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its stake in PPL by 13.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,390,818 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $339,048,000 after purchasing an additional 1,695,726 shares during the period. Covalis Capital LLP grew its stake in PPL by 132.7% during the third quarter. Covalis Capital LLP now owns 1,962,399 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $46,234,000 after purchasing an additional 1,118,978 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in PPL by 44.5% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,461,721 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $93,813,000 after purchasing an additional 1,066,268 shares during the period. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on PPL. StockNews.com lowered PPL from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, February 24th. Bank of America raised their target price on PPL from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on PPL from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. TheStreet lowered PPL from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Argus raised PPL from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, March 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.50.

PPL Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE PPL opened at $27.24 on Wednesday. PPL Co. has a 1-year low of $22.20 and a 1-year high of $29.03. The firm has a market cap of $20.09 billion, a PE ratio of 27.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.81. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average of $26.86 and a 200-day moving average of $26.25.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last posted its earnings results on Friday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.02. PPL had a return on equity of 8.45% and a net margin of 8.90%. The firm had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.28 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that PPL Co. will post 1.7 EPS 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 given a $0.2575 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This is a boost from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.78%. PPL’s dividend payout ratio is 103.00%.

About PPL

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.