GAMMA Investing LLC Makes New Investment in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 6,598 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $173,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC grew 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 worth $339,048,000 after purchasing an additional 1,695,726 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of PPL by 13,891.2% in the 3rd 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 period. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of PPL by 6.9% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,237,027 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $217,624,000 after acquiring an additional 592,279 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of PPL by 0.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,850,818 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $161,405,000 after acquiring an additional 45,548 shares during the period. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of PPL by 2.2% during the third quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 4,749,317 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $113,044,000 after acquiring an additional 103,734 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PPL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of PPL from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Argus upgraded shares of PPL from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of PPL from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of PPL from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.50.

PPL Stock Performance

Shares of PPL opened at $27.02 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $19.93 billion, a PE ratio of 27.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.81. PPL Co. has a one year low of $22.20 and a one year high of $29.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $26.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $26.28.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced 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 the consensus estimate of $1.56 billion. PPL had a net margin of 8.90% and a return on equity of 8.45%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that PPL Co. will post 1.7 earnings per share for the current year.

PPL Increases Dividend

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