Brokerages Set PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) PT at $41.83

Shares of PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nine have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $41.8333.

PPL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Seaport Research Partners set a $42.00 price objective on shares of PPL in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of PPL from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of PPL from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on shares of PPL from $41.00 to $39.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 11th.

PPL Price Performance

PPL opened at $36.35 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $27.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.60. PPL has a fifty-two week low of $33.17 and a fifty-two week high of $40.10. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $37.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $36.66. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. PPL had a net margin of 13.09% and a return on equity of 9.41%. PPL’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that PPL will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

PPL Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th will be paid a $0.285 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 10th. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. PPL’s payout ratio is 69.51%.

Institutional Trading of PPL

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Strategic Investment Advisors MI increased its position in PPL by 256.5% during the first quarter. Strategic Investment Advisors MI now owns 35,277 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,348,000 after acquiring an additional 25,382 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in PPL by 18.8% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,366 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $205,000 after purchasing an additional 849 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in PPL by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 11,124 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $425,000 after purchasing an additional 660 shares in the last quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of PPL by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC now owns 49,157 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,723,000 after acquiring an additional 429 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of PPL during the 1st quarter worth approximately $224,000. 76.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About PPL

PPL Corporation is an energy company that owns and operates electric transmission and distribution infrastructure and provides related customer services. The company’s core business centers on delivering electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers through regulated utility operations, maintaining grid reliability, responding to outages and managing customer billing and account services.

PPL’s activities include construction and maintenance of distribution and transmission lines, meter and grid management, and programs to support energy efficiency and the interconnection of distributed resources.