Westpac Banking Corp Sells 35,653 Shares of PPL Corporation $PPL

Westpac Banking Corp cut its position in PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) by 92.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,120 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 35,653 shares during the quarter. Westpac Banking Corp’s holdings in PPL were worth $109,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. raised its position in shares of PPL by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 4,424,814 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $154,957,000 after buying an additional 88,531 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in PPL by 905.7% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 523,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $18,342,000 after purchasing an additional 471,679 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP grew its position in PPL by 59.5% in the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 452,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,823,000 after acquiring an additional 168,818 shares in the last quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA boosted its holdings in shares of PPL by 7.8% in the 4th quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA now owns 348,335 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,199,000 after purchasing an additional 25,172 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY grew its position in PPL by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 344,670 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,070,000 after acquiring an additional 18,840 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on PPL shares. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a research note on Thursday. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of PPL from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 16th. UBS Group increased their target price on PPL from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Seaport Research Partners set a $42.00 price target on shares of PPL in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.83.

PPL Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:PPL opened at $35.15 on Friday. PPL Corporation has a 1-year low of $33.17 and a 1-year high of $40.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The company 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 firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $37.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.59.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last issued its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. PPL had a return on equity of 9.41% and a net margin of 13.09%.The company had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.60 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that PPL Corporation will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 10th will be given a dividend of $0.285 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 10th. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. PPL’s dividend payout ratio is currently 69.51%.

About PPL

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.