Bison Wealth LLC Raises Stock Holdings in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

Bison Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 23,142 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 597 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC’s holdings in PPL were worth $627,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of PPL. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its position in PPL by 6.1% during the third 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 in the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in PPL during the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Picton Mahoney Asset Management purchased a new position in PPL during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,412,000. FMR LLC increased its holdings in PPL by 13.4% during 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 during the period. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG increased its holdings in PPL by 13.6% during 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 period. 76.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

PPL Trading Down 0.8 %

NYSE:PPL opened at $26.43 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $26.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.09. PPL Co. has a 12 month low of $22.20 and a 12 month high of $29.03. The company has a market capitalization of $19.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.43, a PEG ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.81.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.28 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that PPL Co. will post 1.7 earnings per share for the current year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a $0.2575 dividend. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.90%. This is an increase from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. PPL’s payout ratio is 103.00%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. StockNews.com cut PPL from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 24th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $52.00 price target on shares of PPL in a research report on Wednesday, December 20th. Argus raised PPL from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 8th. TheStreet cut PPL from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on PPL from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $32.50.

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.