Concord Wealth Partners Lowers Stake in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

Concord Wealth Partners cut its stake in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 51.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,009 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,060 shares during the period. Concord Wealth Partners’ holdings in PPL were worth $27,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its position in shares of PPL by 6.1% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 171,908 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,050,000 after acquiring an additional 9,905 shares during the period. Anchor Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in PPL during the 4th quarter worth $35,000. Picton Mahoney Asset Management purchased a new position in PPL during the 3rd quarter worth $2,412,000. FMR LLC raised its position in PPL by 13.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,390,818 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $339,048,000 after purchasing an additional 1,695,726 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG lifted its holdings in shares of PPL by 13.6% in the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,498,429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,303,000 after buying an additional 178,898 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

PPL Stock Performance

Shares of PPL stock opened at $28.09 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The company has a market cap of $20.72 billion, a PE ratio of 27.27, a PEG ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.81. PPL Co. has a 12-month low of $22.20 and a 12-month high of $28.93. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $27.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.39.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.39 billion. PPL had a return on equity of 8.80% and a net margin of 9.29%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.48 EPS. Analysts expect that PPL Co. will post 1.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were paid 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.67%. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 100.00%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Bank of America raised their price target on PPL from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target 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. StockNews.com lowered shares of PPL from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, TheStreet lowered PPL from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $32.27.

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.