First National Bank & Trust Co. of Newtown Sells 856 Shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

First National Bank & Trust Co. of Newtown lowered its stake in shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 4.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 17,527 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 856 shares during the quarter. First National Bank & Trust Co. of Newtown’s holdings in PPL were worth $475,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in PPL by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 60,166,843 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,672,037,000 after acquiring an additional 195,849 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in PPL by 4.8% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 42,759,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,229,596,000 after acquiring an additional 1,971,238 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted 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 acquiring an additional 1,695,726 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in PPL by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 12,884,134 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $367,969,000 after acquiring an additional 775,294 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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 valued at $276,229,000 after acquiring an additional 11,640,696 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays boosted their price objective on PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Bank of America upped their target price on PPL from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. TheStreet cut PPL from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on PPL from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, StockNews.com cut PPL from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, February 24th. One investment 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 MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $32.50.

PPL Stock Up 1.2 %

NYSE:PPL traded up $0.33 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $26.95. 1,258,727 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,934,800. The company has a fifty day moving average of $26.80 and a 200 day moving average of $26.11. PPL Co. has a twelve month low of $22.20 and a twelve month high of $29.03. The company has a market capitalization of $19.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.88.

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

PPL Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were given a dividend of $0.2575 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.82%. This is an increase from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. PPL’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.