Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA Has $4.28 Million Stake in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA lowered its stake in shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 8.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 157,840 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 15,093 shares during the quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA’s holdings in PPL were worth $4,277,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its position in shares of PPL by 6.1% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 171,908 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,050,000 after purchasing an additional 9,905 shares during the period. Anchor Investment Management LLC bought a new position in PPL in the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Picton Mahoney Asset Management bought a new position in PPL in the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,412,000. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of PPL by 13.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,390,818 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $339,048,000 after buying an additional 1,695,726 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG lifted its holdings in shares of PPL by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,498,429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,303,000 after acquiring an additional 178,898 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of PPL from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Argus raised PPL from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, March 8th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on PPL from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on PPL from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, TheStreet cut shares of PPL from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, PPL currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $32.50.

PPL Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE:PPL traded down $0.09 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $27.21. 1,390,469 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,914,133. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $26.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $26.26. PPL Co. has a one year low of $22.20 and a one year high of $29.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.02. PPL had a return on equity of 8.45% and a net margin of 8.90%. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.56 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.28 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that PPL Co. will post 1.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a $0.2575 dividend. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.79%. This is an increase from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. PPL’s payout ratio is currently 103.00%.

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.