PPL (NYSE:PPL) Given New $39.00 Price Target at BMO Capital Markets

PPL (NYSE:PPL) had its price target decreased by stock analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $40.00 to $39.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ target price would indicate a potential upside of 10.96% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on PPL from $40.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Weiss Ratings lowered PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on PPL from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.50.

PPL Stock Up 0.4%

NYSE:PPL opened at $35.15 on Friday. PPL has a fifty-two week low of $33.17 and a fifty-two week high of $40.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.00. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $37.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.59.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. PPL had a net margin of 13.09% and a return on equity of 9.41%. The firm had revenue of $2.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. PPL’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that PPL will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its holdings in PPL by 6.3% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 11,124 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $425,000 after buying an additional 660 shares during the period. Strategic Investment Advisors MI increased its stake in shares of PPL by 256.5% in the first quarter. Strategic Investment Advisors MI now owns 35,277 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,348,000 after acquiring an additional 25,382 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of PPL by 18.8% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,366 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $205,000 after purchasing an additional 849 shares during the last quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC lifted its position in PPL by 0.9% during the first quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC now owns 49,157 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,723,000 after purchasing an additional 429 shares during the period. Finally, Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in PPL in the first quarter valued at $224,000. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

PPL Company Profile

PPL Corporation is an energy company that owns and operates electric transmission and distribution infrastructure and provides related customer services. The company’s core business centers on delivering electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers through regulated utility operations, maintaining grid reliability, responding to outages and managing customer billing and account services.

PPL’s activities include construction and maintenance of distribution and transmission lines, meter and grid management, and programs to support energy efficiency and the interconnection of distributed resources.