Insider Selling: PPL (NYSE:PPL) Director Sells $169,883.04 in Stock

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) Director John Raymond sold 6,494 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.16, for a total value of $169,883.04. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 37,114 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $970,902.24. This represents a 14.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

PPL Stock Down 1.5%

Shares of NYSE:PPL opened at $35.83 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.79. PPL Corporation has a twelve month low of $33.17 and a twelve month high of $40.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The company has a market capitalization of $26.96 billion, a PE ratio of 21.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.57.

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

PPL Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th were paid a dividend of $0.285 per share. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 10th. PPL’s dividend payout ratio is 69.51%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on PPL from $40.00 to $39.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Seaport Research Partners set a $42.00 price target on PPL in a research note on Monday, April 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of PPL from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on PPL from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, PPL presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.92.

Institutional Trading of PPL

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 471,679 shares during the last quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. raised its holdings in shares of PPL by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 4,424,814 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $154,957,000 after acquiring an additional 88,531 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its position in PPL by 62.8% in the 4th quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 115,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,054,000 after acquiring an additional 44,657 shares in the last quarter. Pinebridge Investments LLC acquired a new position in PPL during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,060,000. Finally, Allstate Corp boosted its stake in PPL by 101.4% during the 4th quarter. Allstate Corp now owns 54,701 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,916,000 after purchasing an additional 27,538 shares during the last quarter. 76.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

PPL Company Profile

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.