Prairie Sky Financial Group LLC Acquires New Shares in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

Prairie Sky Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 7,378 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $203,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mariner LLC boosted its position in shares of PPL by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 65,036 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,532,000 after purchasing an additional 4,963 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in PPL by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,850,818 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $161,405,000 after acquiring an additional 45,548 shares in the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in PPL by 93.4% during the 3rd quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 7,771 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $183,000 after acquiring an additional 3,753 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. grew its position in PPL by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 10,612 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $250,000 after acquiring an additional 680 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. increased its stake in PPL by 18.5% during the third quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 25,376 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $598,000 after purchasing an additional 3,970 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PPL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of PPL from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. StockNews.com raised PPL from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 10th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on PPL from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $32.36.

PPL Stock Up 0.2 %

PPL stock traded up $0.06 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $27.76. 3,286,415 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,869,956. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $28.36 and a 200-day moving average price of $27.29. PPL Co. has a 12-month low of $22.20 and a 12-month high of $29.89.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.39 billion. PPL had a return on equity of 8.80% and a net margin of 9.29%. PPL’s quarterly revenue was down 4.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.48 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that PPL Co. will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 1st. Investors of record on Monday, June 10th will be given a $0.2575 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 10th. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.71%. PPL’s dividend payout ratio is presently 100.00%.

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.