PPL (NYSE:PPL) Price Target Raised to $32.00 at Wells Fargo & Company

PPL (NYSE:PPL) had its price objective hoisted by Wells Fargo & Company from $30.00 to $32.00 in a research note released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on PPL. Mizuho increased their price target on PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday. TheStreet cut PPL from a b- rating to a c rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of PPL from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. StockNews.com lowered shares of PPL from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Argus raised shares of PPL from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $30.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, March 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $32.27.

PPL Stock Performance

PPL stock traded up $0.17 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $28.09. 3,760,655 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,981,870. PPL has a 12 month low of $22.20 and a 12 month high of $28.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $27.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $26.39.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.39 billion. PPL had a net margin of 9.29% and a return on equity of 8.80%. PPL’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.48 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that PPL will post 1.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were given a dividend of $0.2575 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This is an increase from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.67%. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 100.00%.

Institutional Trading of PPL

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PPL. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its stake in PPL by 21.2% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 345,714 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,145,000 after buying an additional 60,577 shares during the last quarter. Xponance Inc. lifted its stake in PPL by 4.0% in the third quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 97,392 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,295,000 after buying an additional 3,788 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in PPL by 9.5% in the third quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 182,693 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,304,000 after purchasing an additional 15,866 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. increased its position in PPL by 35.1% in the 3rd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 14,146 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $333,000 after buying an additional 3,674 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Investment Advisors MI raised its position in shares of PPL by 7.1% during the third quarter. Strategic Investment Advisors MI now owns 34,792 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $820,000 after purchasing an additional 2,308 shares during the period. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

PPL Company Profile

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.