Valeo Financial Advisors LLC Buys New Stake in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

Valeo Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 9,638 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $261,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of PPL. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its holdings in shares of PPL by 6.1% in 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 purchasing an additional 9,905 shares during the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of PPL in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Picton Mahoney Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of PPL during the third quarter worth approximately $2,412,000. FMR LLC increased its holdings 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 valued at $339,048,000 after acquiring an additional 1,695,726 shares during the period. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in PPL by 13.6% in the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,498,429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,303,000 after purchasing an additional 178,898 shares during the last quarter. 76.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PPL has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of PPL from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $52.00 price objective on shares of PPL in a research report on Wednesday, December 20th. Argus upgraded PPL from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of PPL from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $32.50.

PPL Stock Performance

Shares of PPL opened at $26.43 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $19.49 billion, a PE ratio of 26.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.81. PPL Co. has a 52-week low of $22.20 and a 52-week high of $29.03. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $26.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.02. PPL had a net margin of 8.90% and a return on equity of 8.45%. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.56 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.28 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that PPL Co. will post 1.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a dividend of $0.2575 per share. This is an increase from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.90%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 103.00%.

PPL Company Profile

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.