PPL Corporation $PPL Shares Sold by Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY

Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY cut its position in shares of PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) by 18.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 282,632 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 62,038 shares during the quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY’s holdings in PPL were worth $10,797,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PPL. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. raised its holdings in shares of PPL by 293.8% during the fourth quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 1,071 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 799 shares during the period. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of PPL in the 4th quarter valued at about $48,000. Aventura Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of PPL in the 4th quarter valued at about $49,000. Rossby Financial LCC grew its position in shares of PPL by 70.0% during the 4th quarter. Rossby Financial LCC now owns 3,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $105,000 after buying an additional 1,240 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First United Bank & Trust bought a new stake in shares of PPL during the 4th quarter valued at about $107,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

PPL Trading Up 2.0%

PPL stock opened at $36.30 on Wednesday. PPL Corporation has a 52-week low of $33.17 and a 52-week high of $40.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.13, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.57. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $36.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.55.

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

PPL Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 10th will be given a $0.285 dividend. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 10th. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 69.51%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on PPL. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on PPL from $40.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Weiss Ratings cut PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price objective on PPL from $38.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.50.

PPL Company Profile

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.