D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. Increases Position in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. grew its holdings in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 167.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 662,438 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 414,826 shares during the quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. owned about 0.09% of PPL worth $21,503,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of PPL in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Kentucky Trust Co purchased a new stake in PPL in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of PPL in the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton increased its stake in shares of PPL by 1,092.2% in the 4th quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 1,216 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 1,114 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of PPL by 84.5% during the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,264 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 579 shares during the period. 76.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of PPL from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. StockNews.com raised shares of PPL from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of PPL from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays upped their price objective on PPL from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Citigroup raised PPL from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $36.90.

PPL Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of NYSE PPL opened at $35.49 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.24 billion, a PE ratio of 29.33, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.70. PPL Co. has a twelve month low of $27.24 and a twelve month high of $36.70. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $35.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $33.97.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $2.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.15 billion. PPL had a return on equity of 8.88% and a net margin of 10.49%. PPL’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.54 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that PPL Co. will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $0.2725 per share. This is an increase from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.09 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. PPL’s dividend payout ratio is presently 80.74%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 shares were sold at an average price of $34.78, for a total value of $39,857.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.