Quadrant Capital Group LLC Sells 832 Shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

Quadrant Capital Group LLC reduced its position in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 26.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,372 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 832 shares during the period. Quadrant Capital Group LLC’s holdings in PPL were worth $64,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in PPL. Mutual Advisors LLC boosted its stake in PPL by 0.9% in the third quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 46,833 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,103,000 after buying an additional 415 shares in the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of PPL by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 8,192 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $222,000 after acquiring an additional 421 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Alliance grew its stake in shares of PPL by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Alliance now owns 19,792 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $536,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of PPL by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 10,887 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $295,000 after buying an additional 498 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janney Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in PPL by 6.2% in the third quarter. Janney Capital Management LLC now owns 8,928 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $210,000 after acquiring an additional 521 shares during the period. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Barclays raised their price objective on PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. TheStreet lowered PPL from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on PPL from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on PPL from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, PPL currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $32.27.

PPL Stock Performance

Shares of PPL stock opened at $28.68 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $27.75 and a 200 day moving average of $26.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.08. PPL Co. has a 12 month low of $22.20 and a 12 month high of $29.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.81.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.02. PPL had a return on equity of 8.80% and a net margin of 9.29%. The firm had revenue of $2.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.48 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that PPL Co. will post 1.71 earnings per share for the current year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 10th will be given a $0.2575 dividend. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. PPL’s payout ratio is 100.00%.

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.