PPL earnings slouch for fourth quarter
Shares of PPL Corp. were mostly unchanged for the week after the Allentown-based energy company reported a drop in fourth-quarter earnings.
Shares closed Friday at $30.41, up a dime from the prior week.
PPL Corp. beat profit forecasts for the year, however, earning $1.53 billion, up from $1.50 billion in 2011. That was even as fourth-quarter profits fell 21 percent, to $359 million, compared to the year-ago quarter.
Corporation officials attributed the drop to investments in properties the utility purchased in Kentucky and the United Kingdom, and tough competition in the wholesale power market.
PPL also announced a slight increase in its quarterly stock dividend, to 36.75 cents a share.
PPL Corp. is a diversified energy company that includes PPL Electric Utilities, the dominant electricity deliverer in Northeast Pennsylvania. The company delivers electricity and natural gas to roughly 10 million customers in the United States and the United Kingdom.