Nomura Holdings Inc. Buys Shares of 24,315 PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new stake in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 24,315 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $789,000.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in PPL by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 17,677,941 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $572,300,000 after purchasing an additional 500,058 shares during the last quarter. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC grew its holdings in PPL by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Cbre Investment Management Listed Real Assets LLC now owns 1,997,610 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $64,842,000 after purchasing an additional 124,275 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in PPL by 128.0% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 82,063 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $2,641,000 after purchasing an additional 46,071 shares during the last quarter. Aviso Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of PPL during the fourth quarter valued at $256,000. Finally, Truist Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of PPL by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 696,487 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $22,608,000 after acquiring an additional 16,188 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on PPL shares. Barclays increased their price objective on PPL from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Citigroup raised PPL from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. StockNews.com raised PPL from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on PPL from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on PPL from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $36.90.

PPL Stock Performance

NYSE PPL opened at $34.97 on Tuesday. The business's 50-day moving average price is $35.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $34.06. PPL Co. has a twelve month low of $27.24 and a twelve month high of $36.70. The company has a market capitalization of $25.85 billion, a PE ratio of 28.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13.

PPL (NYSE:PPL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $2.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.15 billion. PPL had a return on equity of 8.88% and a net margin of 10.49%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.54 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that PPL Co. will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current year.

PPL Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 10th will be issued a $0.2725 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 10th. This represents a $1.09 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.12%. PPL's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 80.74%.

Insider Transactions at PPL

In other news, insider Christine M. Martin sold 1,146 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.78, for a total value of $39,857.88. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 37,167 shares in the company, valued at $1,292,668.26. This trade represents a 2.99% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.28% of the company's stock.

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.

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