PPL (NYSE:PPL) Director John Raymond Sells 6,494 Shares

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) Director John Raymond sold 6,494 shares of PPL stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.16, for a total value of $169,883.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 37,114 shares in the company, valued at approximately $970,902.24. The trade was a 14.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

PPL Stock Down 1.0%

NYSE PPL opened at $35.73 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.00. The company has a market capitalization of $26.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.57. PPL Corporation has a one year low of $33.17 and a one year high of $40.10. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $35.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.79.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. PPL had a net margin of 13.09% and a return on equity of 9.41%. The company had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.51 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. PPL’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that PPL Corporation will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th were issued a $0.285 dividend. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 10th. PPL’s dividend payout ratio is presently 69.51%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PPL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Mizuho upgraded PPL to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Weiss Ratings downgraded PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of PPL from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, PPL has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.67.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. lifted its position in shares of PPL by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 4,424,814 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $154,957,000 after purchasing an additional 88,531 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its holdings in PPL by 905.7% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 523,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $18,342,000 after buying an additional 471,679 shares during the period. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA raised its stake in PPL by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA now owns 348,335 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,199,000 after buying an additional 25,172 shares in the last quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY raised its stake in PPL by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 344,670 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,070,000 after buying an additional 18,840 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Tennessee Department of Treasury lifted its holdings in PPL by 3.8% during the second quarter. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury now owns 249,204 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,446,000 after buying an additional 9,118 shares during the period. 76.99% of the stock is currently 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.