PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) Receives $41.50 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $41.50.

A number of equities analysts recently commented on PPL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of PPL from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of PPL from $38.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 5th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of PPL from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of PPL from $40.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PPL

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in shares of PPL by 905.7% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 523,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $18,342,000 after buying an additional 471,679 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of PPL by 59.5% in the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 452,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,823,000 after buying an additional 168,818 shares in the last quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. boosted its position in shares of PPL by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 4,424,814 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $154,957,000 after acquiring an additional 88,531 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its position in shares of PPL by 62.8% in the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 115,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,054,000 after acquiring an additional 44,657 shares during the period. Finally, Pinebridge Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of PPL in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,060,000. 76.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

PPL Stock Performance

NYSE PPL opened at $35.37 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $36.74 and a 200-day moving average of $36.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.00. The stock has a market cap of $26.61 billion, a PE ratio of 21.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.57. PPL has a 52-week low of $33.17 and a 52-week high of $40.10.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last posted its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.51 billion. PPL had a net margin of 13.09% and a return on equity of 9.41%. PPL’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that PPL will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 10th will be given a dividend of $0.285 per share. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 10th. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 69.51%.

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.