PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) Shares Sold by Argyle Capital Management Inc.

Argyle Capital Management Inc. decreased its position in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 15.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 72,798 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 13,727 shares during the quarter. Argyle Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in PPL were worth $1,973,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC raised its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 1,695,726 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in PPL by 13,891.2% in the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 11,724,495 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $276,229,000 after purchasing an additional 11,640,696 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in PPL by 6.9% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,237,027 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $217,624,000 after buying an additional 592,279 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in PPL by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,850,818 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $161,405,000 after buying an additional 45,548 shares during the period. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC grew its holdings in PPL by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 4,749,317 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $113,044,000 after buying an additional 103,734 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PPL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. TheStreet cut PPL from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Barclays lifted their price target on PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on PPL from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Bank of America lifted their price target on PPL from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on PPL from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, PPL presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $32.50.

PPL Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:PPL traded down $0.28 during trading on Friday, reaching $27.02. 3,467,327 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,906,858. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.88. PPL Co. has a 12-month low of $22.20 and a 12-month high of $29.03. The firm has a market cap of $19.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.81. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $26.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $26.32.

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

PPL Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a $0.2575 dividend. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.81%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This is a boost from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. PPL’s dividend payout ratio is currently 103.00%.

About PPL

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.