Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. Decreases Stake in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lowered its position in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,768,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 24,265 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. owned approximately 0.24% of PPL worth $47,918,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in PPL by 0.3% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 60,166,843 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,672,037,000 after acquiring an additional 195,849 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in PPL by 4.8% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 42,759,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,229,596,000 after acquiring an additional 1,971,238 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of PPL by 13.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,390,818 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $339,048,000 after buying an additional 1,695,726 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of PPL by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 12,884,134 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $367,969,000 after buying an additional 775,294 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of PPL by 13,891.2% during the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 11,724,495 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $276,229,000 after buying an additional 11,640,696 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

PPL Stock Performance

Shares of PPL opened at $27.02 on Friday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $19.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.81. The company’s fifty day moving average is $26.82 and its two-hundred day moving average is $26.14. PPL Co. has a 1 year low of $22.20 and a 1 year high of $29.03.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.56 billion. PPL had a net margin of 8.90% and a return on equity of 8.45%. PPL’s revenue was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.28 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that PPL Co. will post 1.7 earnings per share for the current year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a $0.2575 dividend. This is a boost from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.81%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. PPL’s payout ratio is currently 103.00%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of PPL from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 24th. Argus upgraded shares of PPL from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of PPL from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of PPL from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, TheStreet downgraded shares of PPL from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.50.

PPL 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.