Pacer Advisors Inc. Increases Holdings in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 282.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 177,595 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 131,152 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in PPL were worth $4,813,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its stake in PPL by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 171,908 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,050,000 after buying an additional 9,905 shares during the last quarter. Slagle Financial LLC purchased a new stake in PPL during the 2nd quarter valued at $212,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of PPL in the 4th quarter worth $35,000. Picton Mahoney Asset Management purchased a new stake in shares of PPL in the 3rd quarter worth $2,412,000. Finally, FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of PPL by 13.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,390,818 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $339,048,000 after purchasing an additional 1,695,726 shares in the last quarter. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PPL has been the subject of several analyst reports. TheStreet lowered PPL from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Argus upgraded PPL from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, March 8th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $52.00 price objective on shares of PPL in a research note on Wednesday, December 20th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $30.00 price objective on shares of PPL in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $32.67.

PPL Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of PPL stock opened at $27.53 on Friday. PPL Co. has a 52-week low of $22.20 and a 52-week high of $29.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.31 billion, a PE ratio of 27.53, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.81. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $26.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $25.89.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.02. PPL had a net margin of 8.90% and a return on equity of 8.45%. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.28 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that PPL Co. will post 1.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.2575 per share. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 7th. This is an increase from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. PPL’s dividend payout ratio is 103.00%.

About PPL

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.