PPL (NYSE:PPL) Price Target Raised to $40.00 at Mizuho

PPL (NYSE:PPL) had its target price upped by Mizuho from $39.00 to $40.00 in a report issued on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Mizuho currently has a neutral rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on PPL. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of PPL from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of PPL from $43.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $42.00 price target on shares of PPL in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Barclays upgraded shares of PPL from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $37.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of PPL from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, PPL has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $41.17.

PPL Stock Up 0.7%

PPL stock opened at $38.77 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $29.13 billion, a PE ratio of 24.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.86. PPL has a one year low of $32.50 and a one year high of $39.08. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $36.84 and a 200 day moving average of $36.32.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $2.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.34 billion. PPL had a return on equity of 9.29% and a net margin of 13.06%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.34 earnings per share. PPL has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.900-1.980 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that PPL will post 1.83 EPS for the current year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be issued a $0.285 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. This is a positive change from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. PPL’s payout ratio is currently 71.25%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PPL

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. increased its stake in shares of PPL by 13.5% in the third quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 4,336,283 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $161,136,000 after purchasing an additional 515,523 shares in the last quarter. Allstate Corp purchased a new position in shares of PPL during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,009,000. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of PPL by 59.5% during the 3rd quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 452,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,823,000 after buying an additional 168,818 shares in the last quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA boosted its holdings in PPL by 8.1% in the 3rd quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA now owns 323,163 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,009,000 after buying an additional 24,255 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in PPL by 1,161.0% in the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 242,851 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,230,000 after buying an additional 223,593 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.