PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) Lifted to Buy at Jefferies Group LLC

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) was upgraded by research analysts at Jefferies Group LLC from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, July 19th, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has a $42.00 price target on the utilities provider’s stock, up from their previous price target of $39.50. Jefferies Group LLC’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 10.01% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on PPL. UBS AG downgraded shares of PPL Corporation from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 29th. Deutsche Bank AG lifted their price target on shares of PPL Corporation from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 11th. Barclays PLC reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $41.00 price objective (up from $38.00) on shares of PPL Corporation in a report on Sunday, April 23rd. BidaskClub downgraded shares of PPL Corporation from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 14th. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (The) raised shares of PPL Corporation from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $35.00 to $38.00 in a report on Monday, June 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. PPL Corporation currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.10.

PPL Corporation (NYSE PPL) opened at 38.18 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $38.51 and its 200 day moving average is $37.45. PPL Corporation has a one year low of $32.08 and a one year high of $40.20. The company has a market capitalization of $26.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.30 and a beta of 0.50.

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 4th. The utilities provider reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.62. PPL Corporation had a net margin of 24.46% and a return on equity of 16.28%. The business had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.67 EPS. PPL Corporation’s revenue was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that PPL Corporation will post $2.16 EPS for the current year.

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In other news, VP Joseph P. Bergstein, Jr. sold 2,929 shares of PPL Corporation stock in a transaction on Monday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.55, for a total transaction of $112,912.95. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Gregory N. Dudkin sold 8,228 shares of PPL Corporation stock in a transaction on Monday, June 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.55, for a total value of $325,417.40. Following the sale, the insider now owns 39,693 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,858.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.42% of the company’s stock.

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in shares of PPL Corporation by 3,377.9% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 47,999,937 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,794,717,000 after buying an additional 46,619,804 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of PPL Corporation by 11.8% in the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 17,138,572 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $640,811,000 after buying an additional 1,812,574 shares in the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. boosted its stake in shares of PPL Corporation by 12.3% in the first quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 13,918,249 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $520,403,000 after buying an additional 1,524,365 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of PPL Corporation by 3.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 48,915,860 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,828,963,000 after buying an additional 1,416,622 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Eagle Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of PPL Corporation by 16.4% in the first quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 5,081,105 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $189,983,000 after buying an additional 714,481 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.06% of the company’s stock.

About PPL Corporation

PPL Corporation (PPL) is a utility holding company. Through its subsidiaries, PPL delivers electricity to customers in the United Kingdom, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee; delivers natural gas to customers in Kentucky, and generates electricity from power plants in Kentucky. PPL operates through U.K.