PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $41.1667.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on PPL. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on PPL from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 16th. UBS Group lifted their price target on PPL from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective 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. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $42.00 target price on shares of PPL in a report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of PPL from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 16th.

PPL Stock Up 0.1%

PPL stock opened at $38.67 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $29.08 billion, a PE ratio of 24.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.66. PPL has a 12 month low of $32.50 and a 12 month high of $39.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.49.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last posted its quarterly 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). PPL had a return on equity of 9.29% and a net margin of 13.06%.The business had revenue of $2.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.34 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.34 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. PPL has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.900-1.980 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that PPL will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.285 per share. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 10th. This is a positive change from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. PPL’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.25%.

Institutional Trading of PPL

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. raised its position in PPL by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 4,424,814 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $154,957,000 after buying an additional 88,531 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in PPL by 905.7% during the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 523,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $18,342,000 after acquiring an additional 471,679 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP grew its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 168,818 shares in the last quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA increased its holdings in shares of PPL by 7.8% in the 4th quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA now owns 348,335 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,199,000 after purchasing an additional 25,172 shares during the period. Finally, Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY increased its holdings in shares of PPL by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 344,670 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,070,000 after purchasing an additional 18,840 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.