BMO Capital Markets Has Lowered Expectations for PPL (NYSE:PPL) Stock Price

PPL (NYSE:PPL) had its price target decreased by investment analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $42.00 to $40.00 in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ target price suggests a potential upside of 11.56% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on PPL. Mizuho raised their target price on PPL from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 16th. UBS Group raised their target price on PPL from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Seaport Research Partners set a $42.00 target price on PPL in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Weiss Ratings upgraded PPL from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Barclays set a $39.00 price target on shares of PPL in a research report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.67.

PPL Stock Performance

Shares of PPL stock opened at $35.86 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $26.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.60. The business’s 50 day moving average is $38.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $36.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. PPL has a 12-month low of $33.12 and a 12-month high of $40.10.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PPL

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PPL. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its position in PPL by 39.5% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 19,166 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $692,000 after buying an additional 5,428 shares in the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP lifted its position in PPL by 40.7% during the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 62,375 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,252,000 after buying an additional 18,057 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth lifted its position in PPL by 13.0% during the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 26,861 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $971,000 after buying an additional 3,084 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in PPL by 64.9% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,695 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $159,000 after buying an additional 1,848 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cary Street Partners Financial LLC lifted its position in PPL by 6.9% during the second quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 5,299 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $180,000 after buying an additional 343 shares in 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.