17,764 Shares in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) Acquired by Schechter Investment Advisors LLC

Schechter Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 17,764 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $577,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in PPL in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $203,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in PPL in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $221,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its stake in PPL by 36.1% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 16,293 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $529,000 after acquiring an additional 4,323 shares during the period. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. grew its stake in PPL by 75.6% in the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,658 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $86,000 after acquiring an additional 1,144 shares during the period. Finally, Norden Group LLC grew its stake in PPL by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 9,043 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $294,000 after acquiring an additional 341 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PPL has been the subject of a number of research reports. Citigroup raised their price objective on PPL from $31.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on PPL from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Barclays raised their target price on PPL from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on PPL in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $36.00 target price on the stock. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $34.27.

PPL Stock Performance

Shares of PPL stock opened at $34.72 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $33.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $32.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.83. PPL Co. has a 12 month low of $25.93 and a 12 month high of $35.91. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The utilities provider reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $2.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.09 billion. PPL had a return on equity of 8.88% and a net margin of 10.49%. As a group, analysts anticipate that PPL Co. will post 1.83 EPS for the current year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.2725 per share. This is a positive change from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.09 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.08%.

Insider Buying and Selling at PPL

In other PPL news, insider Christine M. Martin sold 1,146 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.78, for a total value of $39,857.88. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,167 shares in the company, valued at $1,292,668.26. The trade was a 2.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Tadd J. Henninger sold 6,639 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.16, for a total value of $213,510.24. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 11,210 shares in the company, valued at approximately $360,513.60. The trade was a 37.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 11,779 shares of company stock worth $386,515 over the last ninety days. 0.22% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About PPL

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.