PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) Receives Average Rating of “Buy” from Analysts

Shares of PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) have been given an average recommendation of “Buy” by the twelve research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $41.20.

PPL has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of PPL in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on PPL in a research report on Monday, October 6th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $43.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on PPL from $43.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. BTIG Research upgraded PPL to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on PPL from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th.

PPL Stock Performance

PPL stock opened at $34.29 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.07 and a 200 day simple moving average of $35.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. PPL has a 12-month low of $31.22 and a 12-month high of $38.26.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.02. PPL had a net margin of 12.16% and a return on equity of 9.08%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.42 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. PPL has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.780-1.840 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that PPL will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PPL Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 10th will be issued a $0.2725 dividend. This represents a $1.09 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 10th. PPL’s dividend payout ratio is currently 73.65%.

Institutional Trading of PPL

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Algert Global LLC bought a new position in shares of PPL in the 1st quarter worth $250,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of PPL by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,083,934 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $39,142,000 after buying an additional 18,967 shares during the period. CW Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of PPL by 128.2% in the 1st quarter. CW Advisors LLC now owns 44,250 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,598,000 after acquiring an additional 24,858 shares during the last quarter. Norinchukin Bank The raised its position in shares of PPL by 11.8% in the 1st quarter. Norinchukin Bank The now owns 31,293 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,130,000 after acquiring an additional 3,291 shares during the period. Finally, Allstate Corp raised its position in shares of PPL by 40.0% in the 1st quarter. Allstate Corp now owns 31,675 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,144,000 after acquiring an additional 9,054 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.