Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC Invests $340,000 in PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL)

Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 9,407 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $340,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Boston Partners increased its holdings in shares of PPL by 8,266.9% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 9,518,141 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $309,060,000 after purchasing an additional 9,404,382 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of PPL in the 4th quarter worth $228,509,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of PPL in the 4th quarter worth $147,480,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of PPL by 14.0% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 27,465,566 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $891,532,000 after acquiring an additional 3,380,745 shares during the period. Finally, Reaves W H & Co. Inc. boosted its position in shares of PPL by 182.2% during the 4th quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 3,951,116 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $128,254,000 after acquiring an additional 2,551,070 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PPL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of PPL from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of PPL from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 18th. Citigroup raised shares of PPL from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Barclays increased their price objective on PPL from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded PPL from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $36.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other PPL news, COO David J. Bonenberger sold 1,767 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.98, for a total value of $61,809.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 45,485 shares in the company, valued at $1,591,065.30. The trade was a 3.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.22% of the company's stock.

PPL Trading Up 1.7%

PPL stock traded up $0.56 during trading on Monday, hitting $34.33. The company had a trading volume of 4,275,706 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,962,364. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $34.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $34.11. PPL Corporation has a 1-year low of $27.24 and a 1-year high of $36.70. The stock has a market cap of $25.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.65.

PPL (NYSE:PPL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $2.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.15 billion. PPL had a return on equity of 9.14% and a net margin of 11.49%. The company's revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.54 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that PPL Corporation will post 1.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPL Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.2725 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 10th. This represents a $1.09 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.18%. PPL's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.74%.

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.