PPL (NYSE:PPL) Price Target Raised to $45.00 at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) had its price objective lifted by investment analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $42.00 to $45.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s target price indicates a potential upside of 24.56% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on PPL. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of PPL from $40.00 to $39.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on PPL from $40.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.92.

PPL Stock Performance

Shares of PPL stock traded up $0.42 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $36.13. 2,343,935 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,896,955. PPL has a 12-month low of $33.17 and a 12-month high of $40.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The company has a market cap of $27.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.57. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $35.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.79.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last released its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. PPL had a net margin of 13.09% and a return on equity of 9.41%. The company had revenue of $2.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that PPL will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO William Spencer Marshall sold 200,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.92, for a total transaction of $5,184,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,703,115 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $70,064,740.80. This represents a 6.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director John W. Raymond sold 6,494 shares of PPL stock in a transaction on Monday, July 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.16, for a total transaction of $169,883.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 37,114 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $970,902.24. The trade was a 14.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its stake in PPL by 905.7% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 523,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $18,342,000 after purchasing an additional 471,679 shares during the last quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA raised its holdings in shares of PPL by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA now owns 348,335 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,199,000 after buying an additional 25,172 shares during the period. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY raised its holdings in shares of PPL by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 344,670 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,070,000 after buying an additional 18,840 shares during the period. Allstate Corp lifted its stake in shares of PPL by 101.4% during the 4th quarter. Allstate Corp now owns 54,701 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,916,000 after acquiring an additional 27,538 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Reaves W H & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in shares of PPL by 2.0% during 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

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.