PPL (NYSE:PPL) Raised to “Hold” at StockNews.com

PPL (NYSE:PPL) was upgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Wednesday.

PPL has been the subject of several other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on PPL from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. 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 report on Thursday, April 11th. Bank of America boosted their price target on PPL from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Barclays boosted their price target on PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, TheStreet lowered PPL from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, PPL has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $32.50.

PPL Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of PPL stock traded up $0.13 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $27.37. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,327,455 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,967,842. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.88. PPL has a 52-week low of $22.20 and a 52-week high of $29.03. The stock has a market cap of $20.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.37, a PEG ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.81. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $26.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.25.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.02. PPL had a return on equity of 8.45% and a net margin of 8.90%. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.28 earnings per share. PPL’s revenue was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that PPL will post 1.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PPL

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PPL. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its position in PPL by 6.1% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 171,908 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,050,000 after purchasing an additional 9,905 shares during the period. Anchor Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in PPL during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Picton Mahoney Asset Management purchased a new stake in shares of PPL in the third quarter worth approximately $2,412,000. FMR LLC raised its holdings 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 worth $339,048,000 after buying an additional 1,695,726 shares during the period. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its holdings in shares of PPL by 13.6% in the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,498,429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,303,000 after buying an additional 178,898 shares during the period. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.