PPL Corporation $PPL Shares Sold by Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY

Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY lessened its stake in PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) by 18.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 282,632 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 62,038 shares during the period. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY’s holdings in PPL were worth $10,797,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of PPL. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of PPL by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 9,325 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $347,000 after buying an additional 341 shares in the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of PPL by 6.9% in the second quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 5,299 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $180,000 after acquiring an additional 343 shares in the last quarter. Busey Bank boosted its holdings in shares of PPL by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Busey Bank now owns 6,005 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $210,000 after acquiring an additional 351 shares in the last quarter. Horizon Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of PPL by 2.2% during the third quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 24,991 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $929,000 after acquiring an additional 540 shares during the period. Finally, New Mexico Educational Retirement Board increased its stake in shares of PPL by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 33,973 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,190,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings cut PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on PPL from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Mizuho cut their price objective on PPL from $38.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Seaport Research Partners set a $42.00 target price on PPL in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.50.

PPL Stock Up 2.0%

NYSE PPL opened at $36.30 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $36.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.55. PPL Corporation has a 12 month low of $33.17 and a 12 month high of $40.10. The company has a market capitalization of $27.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.13, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.57.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last released its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. PPL had a net margin of 13.09% and a return on equity of 9.41%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that PPL Corporation will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PPL Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.285 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 10th. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.1%. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 69.51%.

PPL Profile

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.