Barclays Initiates Coverage on PPL (NYSE:PPL)

Research analysts at Barclays began coverage on shares of PPL (NYSE:PPL – Get Rating) in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, The Fly reports. The brokerage set an “equal weight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

PPL has been the subject of a number of other reports. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded PPL from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 6th. Mizuho upped their price objective on PPL from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 12th. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on PPL from $33.00 to $27.00 in a research note on Monday, October 24th. TheStreet raised PPL from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 6th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on PPL to $33.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, PPL presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $31.30.

PPL Stock Performance

PPL stock opened at $29.15 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93. The firm has a market cap of $21.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.68 and a beta of 0.78. PPL has a 12-month low of $23.47 and a 12-month high of $31.74. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.28.

PPL (NYSE:PPL – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 4th. The utilities provider reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.41. The business had revenue of $2.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.66 billion. PPL had a return on equity of 7.19% and a net margin of 9.86%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that PPL will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider David J. Bonenberger sold 29,080 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.00, for a total transaction of $872,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 34,606 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,038,180. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PPL

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PPL. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can lifted its holdings in shares of PPL by 3.7% during the first quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 350,807 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $10,501,000 after purchasing an additional 12,428 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in PPL by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,292,612 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $65,480,000 after acquiring an additional 50,658 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in PPL by 9.4% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 341,996 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,779,000 after acquiring an additional 29,496 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its stake in PPL by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 409,552 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,697,000 after acquiring an additional 4,998 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mather Group LLC. lifted its stake in PPL by 7.7% in the 1st quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 10,764 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $307,000 after acquiring an additional 766 shares in the last quarter. 70.02% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About PPL

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PPL Corp. engages in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. It operates through the two reportable segments: Kentucky Regulated & Pennsylvania Regulated. The Kentucky Regulated segment consists of LKE’s regulated electricity generation, transmission and distribution operations of Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company as well as regulated distribution and sale of natural gas of Louisville Gas and Electric Company.