Ethic Inc. Invests $254,000 in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

Ethic Inc. bought a new position in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 7,839 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $254,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in PPL. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of PPL by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,231 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $235,000 after buying an additional 477 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its stake in shares of PPL by 47.1% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 18,071 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $587,000 after buying an additional 5,784 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of PPL by 17.2% in the fourth quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 74,087 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,405,000 after buying an additional 10,888 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of PPL in the fourth quarter worth approximately $648,000. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of PPL by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 190,419 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $6,181,000 after buying an additional 5,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

PPL Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of PPL stock opened at $34.88 on Friday. PPL Co. has a 12 month low of $27.24 and a 12 month high of $36.70. The stock has a market cap of $25.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.70. 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 company has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $34.02.

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. PPL had a net margin of 10.49% and a return on equity of 8.88%. The business had revenue of $2.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.54 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that PPL Co. will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current year.

PPL Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.2725 per share. This represents a $1.09 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.13%. PPL’s dividend payout ratio is currently 80.74%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on PPL. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of PPL from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of PPL from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of PPL from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of PPL from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of PPL from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Three 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 MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $36.90.

Insider Buying and Selling at PPL

In other news, insider Christine M. Martin sold 1,146 shares of the 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 37,167 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,292,668.26. This represents a 2.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.22% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.