PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) Shares Sold by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. decreased its position in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,768,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 24,265 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.’s holdings in PPL were worth $47,918,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in PPL. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of PPL by 13,891.2% during the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 11,724,495 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $276,229,000 after buying an additional 11,640,696 shares in the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP grew its position in shares of PPL by 70.0% during the second quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 5,950,405 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $157,448,000 after buying an additional 2,450,405 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of PPL by 4.8% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 42,759,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,229,596,000 after buying an additional 1,971,238 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of PPL during the fourth quarter worth approximately $50,783,000. Finally, FMR LLC grew its position in shares of PPL by 13.4% during 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on PPL. Barclays raised their price objective on PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of PPL from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of PPL from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, February 24th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of PPL from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, TheStreet downgraded shares of PPL from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $32.50.

PPL Stock Performance

Shares of PPL opened at $27.02 on Friday. PPL Co. has a 1 year low of $22.20 and a 1 year high of $29.03. The company has a market cap of $19.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.88. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $26.82 and a 200-day moving average of $26.14.

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

PPL Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a $0.2575 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.81%. This is an increase from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. PPL’s dividend payout ratio is presently 103.00%.

PPL 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.