Barclays Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for PPL (NYSE:PPL) Stock

PPL (NYSE:PPL) had its target price lifted by equities researchers at Barclays from $40.00 to $41.00 in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Barclays‘s price target suggests a potential upside of 3.03% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on PPL. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $42.00 target price on shares of PPL in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of PPL from $45.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of PPL from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 16th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of PPL from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of PPL from $43.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $41.25.

PPL Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PPL opened at $39.79 on Wednesday. PPL has a twelve month low of $33.12 and a twelve month high of $39.84. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.58. The company has a market capitalization of $29.93 billion, a PE ratio of 24.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PPL. J.Safra Asset Management Corp acquired a new position in shares of PPL during the third quarter valued at about $28,000. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates acquired a new position in shares of PPL during the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Sound Income Strategies LLC grew its holdings in shares of PPL by 322.5% during the third quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 959 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 732 shares during the last quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. grew its holdings in shares of PPL by 293.8% during the fourth quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 1,071 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 799 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lodestone Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of PPL during the fourth quarter valued at about $48,000. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About PPL

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.