Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. Purchases 1,558 Shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 2.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 63,093 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,558 shares during the quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in PPL were worth $1,710,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its position in PPL by 13,891.2% during the 3rd 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. California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its position in PPL by 83.5% during the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 4,269,687 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $115,709,000 after buying an additional 1,943,282 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in PPL by 13.4% during the 3rd 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. Covalis Capital LLP lifted its position in PPL by 132.7% during the 3rd quarter. Covalis Capital LLP now owns 1,962,399 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $46,234,000 after buying an additional 1,118,978 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in PPL by 44.5% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 3,461,721 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $93,813,000 after buying an additional 1,066,268 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays upped their target price on shares of PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of PPL from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. TheStreet downgraded shares of PPL from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Argus raised PPL from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, PPL has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.50.

PPL Stock Performance

PPL stock traded up $0.04 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $27.41. 1,608,966 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,924,919. PPL Co. has a fifty-two week low of $22.20 and a fifty-two week high of $29.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The stock has a market cap of $20.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.81. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $26.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $26.25.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last posted its earnings results on Friday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $1.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.28 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that PPL Co. will post 1.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Stockholders 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. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.76%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. PPL’s payout ratio is 103.00%.

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.