Analysts Set PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) Price Target at $41.83

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $41.8333.

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on PPL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped 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. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of PPL from $42.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Seaport Research Partners set a $42.00 price target on shares of PPL in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on shares of PPL from $41.00 to $39.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 11th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PPL. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. lifted its position in shares of PPL by 293.8% during the 4th quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 1,071 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 799 shares during the period. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of PPL during the 4th quarter valued at $48,000. Aventura Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of PPL during the 4th quarter valued at $49,000. Root Financial Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of PPL during the 3rd quarter valued at $56,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of PPL by 310.7% during the 3rd quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 1,573 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 1,190 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

PPL Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of NYSE PPL opened at $36.17 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $27.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.60. PPL has a 52-week low of $33.17 and a 52-week high of $40.10. 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 company’s 50 day moving average price is $37.66 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.66.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last issued its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. PPL had a net margin of 13.09% and a return on equity of 9.41%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.60 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that PPL will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

The business 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 dividend of $0.285 per share. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 10th. PPL’s payout ratio is presently 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.