Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Cuts Stock Position in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lessened its holdings in shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 12.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 158,191 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 22,174 shares during the quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC’s holdings in PPL were worth $4,287,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC raised its position in 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 purchasing an additional 1,695,726 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in PPL by 13,891.2% in the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 11,724,495 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $276,229,000 after acquiring an additional 11,640,696 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in PPL by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,237,027 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $217,624,000 after acquiring an additional 592,279 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of PPL by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,850,818 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $161,405,000 after purchasing an additional 45,548 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of PPL by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,416,950 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $104,063,000 after purchasing an additional 50,533 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on PPL shares. Barclays raised their target price on PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of PPL from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. TheStreet lowered PPL from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on PPL from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $32.27.

PPL Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of PPL stock opened at $28.09 on Monday. PPL Co. has a twelve month low of $22.20 and a twelve month high of $28.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The business’s 50 day moving average is $27.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $26.45. The company has a market capitalization of $20.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.81.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.02. PPL had a net margin of 9.29% and a return on equity of 8.80%. The company had revenue of $2.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.48 EPS. PPL’s revenue was down 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that PPL Co. will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a $0.2575 dividend. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This is a positive change from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. PPL’s payout ratio is currently 100.00%.

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.