OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC Grows Position in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 12.8% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 8,231 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 936 shares during the quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in PPL were worth $272,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of PPL by 25.3% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 5,890,854 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $162,882,000 after purchasing an additional 1,189,339 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in shares of PPL by 91.3% in the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 5,821,936 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $160,977,000 after buying an additional 2,778,820 shares during the last quarter. Electron Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of PPL by 71.3% in the second quarter. Electron Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,306,007 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $119,061,000 after acquiring an additional 1,792,200 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can grew its holdings in shares of PPL by 3.4% in the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 3,228,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $89,808,000 after acquiring an additional 104,662 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of PPL by 8.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,571,253 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $71,098,000 after acquiring an additional 202,296 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on PPL from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of PPL in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $38.00 price target for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on shares of PPL in a research report on Friday, October 25th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $37.00 price objective on the stock. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of PPL from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of PPL from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $35.50.

PPL Price Performance

PPL stock opened at $34.45 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.07. PPL Co. has a one year low of $25.35 and a one year high of $35.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.76, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.81. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $32.75 and a 200-day moving average price of $30.65.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last posted its earnings results on Friday, November 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42. PPL had a return on equity of 9.20% and a net margin of 9.95%. The business had revenue of $2.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.43 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that PPL Co. will post 1.72 EPS for the current year.

PPL Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 10th will be paid a $0.2575 dividend. This represents a $1.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 10th. PPL’s dividend payout ratio is presently 91.97%.

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.