PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) Shares Sold by TCW Group Inc.

TCW Group Inc. trimmed its stake in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 53.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 77,126 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 89,368 shares during the quarter. TCW Group Inc.’s holdings in PPL were worth $2,091,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of PPL by 13.4% in the third 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. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of 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 valued at $276,229,000 after purchasing an additional 11,640,696 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of PPL by 11.2% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 10,396,322 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $281,740,000 after purchasing an additional 1,045,852 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of PPL by 6.9% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,237,027 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $217,624,000 after purchasing an additional 592,279 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of PPL by 0.7% in the third 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 period. 76.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on PPL shares. Barclays boosted their price target on PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on PPL from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Mizuho boosted their price target on PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on PPL from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Argus raised PPL from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $32.27.

PPL Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:PPL traded down $0.10 during trading on Friday, hitting $28.68. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,089,303 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,316,911. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.28. PPL Co. has a fifty-two week low of $22.20 and a fifty-two week high of $29.89. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $27.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $26.91. The company has a market capitalization of $21.16 billion, a PE ratio of 27.84, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.81.

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

PPL Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.2575 per share. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.59%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 7th. PPL’s payout ratio is currently 100.00%.

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.