PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) Shares Acquired by Signaturefd LLC

Signaturefd LLC increased its position in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 49.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 5,213 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,729 shares during the quarter. Signaturefd LLC’s holdings in PPL were worth $141,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its stake in PPL by 6.1% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 171,908 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,050,000 after purchasing an additional 9,905 shares in the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC bought a new position in PPL in the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Picton Mahoney Asset Management bought a new position in PPL in the third quarter worth about $2,412,000. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 1,695,726 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG lifted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 178,898 shares during the last quarter. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of PPL from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of PPL from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Barclays lifted 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. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on PPL from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Bank of America lifted 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. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $32.50.

PPL Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:PPL opened at $27.02 on Monday. PPL Co. has a 12 month low of $22.20 and a 12 month high of $29.03. The stock has a market cap of $19.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.02, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.81. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $26.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $26.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.73.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.28 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that PPL Co. will post 1.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a dividend of $0.2575 per share. This is a boost from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.81%. PPL’s 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.