Analysts Set PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) Price Target at $40.50

Shares of PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) have been given a consensus rating of “Buy” by the twelve research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have assigned a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $40.50.

A number of research analysts have commented on PPL shares. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of PPL from $38.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. BTIG Research raised PPL to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of PPL from $40.00 to $37.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of PPL from $43.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on PPL from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. raised its position in shares of PPL by 13.5% in the 3rd quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 4,336,283 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $161,136,000 after purchasing an additional 515,523 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in PPL by 905.7% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 523,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $18,342,000 after acquiring an additional 471,679 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP boosted its stake in PPL by 59.5% during the 3rd quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 452,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,823,000 after purchasing an additional 168,818 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp increased its holdings in shares of PPL by 13.8% in the 2nd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 372,442 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,622,000 after purchasing an additional 45,154 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA raised its stake in shares of PPL by 12.4% in the second quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA now owns 298,908 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $10,130,000 after purchasing an additional 32,945 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

PPL Stock Performance

NYSE PPL opened at $36.02 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $26.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.70. The business has a fifty day moving average of $35.23 and a 200-day moving average of $36.07. PPL has a fifty-two week low of $32.50 and a fifty-two week high of $38.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18.

PPL Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 10th were paid a dividend of $0.2725 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 10th. This represents a $1.09 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 73.65%.

About PPL

PPL Corporation is an energy company that owns and operates electric transmission and distribution infrastructure and provides related customer services. The company’s core business centers on delivering electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers through regulated utility operations, maintaining grid reliability, responding to outages and managing customer billing and account services.

PPL’s activities include construction and maintenance of distribution and transmission lines, meter and grid management, and programs to support energy efficiency and the interconnection of distributed resources.