Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC Buys 7,040 Shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 3.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 238,708 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,040 shares during the quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC’s holdings in PPL were worth $6,469,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of PPL. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in PPL by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 60,166,843 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,672,037,000 after purchasing an additional 195,849 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in PPL by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 42,759,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,229,596,000 after purchasing an additional 1,971,238 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew 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 period. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in PPL by 6.4% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 12,884,134 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $367,969,000 after purchasing an additional 775,294 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC grew 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 period. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PPL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America upped their price objective on PPL from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Royal Bank of Canada upped 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. Barclays upped their price objective on PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on PPL from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, TheStreet downgraded PPL from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.50.

PPL Stock Performance

Shares of PPL opened at $26.62 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $26.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $26.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.81. 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 52-week low of $22.20 and a 52-week high of $29.03.

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. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion for 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. Research analysts forecast that PPL Co. will post 1.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a dividend of $0.2575 per share. This is a boost from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.87%. PPL’s dividend payout ratio is 103.00%.

PPL Company 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.