PPL (NYSE:PPL) CEO William Spencer Marshall Sells 200,000 Shares

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) CEO William Spencer Marshall sold 200,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.92, for a total value of $5,184,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,703,115 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $70,064,740.80. This trade represents a 6.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

PPL Stock Performance

PPL stock opened at $35.73 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.88 billion, a PE ratio of 21.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.57. PPL Corporation has a one year low of $33.17 and a one year high of $40.10. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $35.88 and its 200 day moving average price is $36.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.00.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.77 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. PPL had a net margin of 13.09% and a return on equity of 9.41%. PPL’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that PPL Corporation will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPL Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 10th were paid a dividend of $0.285 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 10th. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.2%. PPL’s payout ratio is 69.51%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PPL

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Empowered Funds LLC increased its holdings in PPL by 39.5% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 19,166 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $692,000 after buying an additional 5,428 shares during the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP lifted its holdings in PPL by 40.7% during the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 62,375 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,252,000 after buying an additional 18,057 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth grew its position in shares of PPL by 13.0% in the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 26,861 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $971,000 after acquiring an additional 3,084 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of PPL by 64.9% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,695 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $159,000 after acquiring an additional 1,848 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cary Street Partners Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of PPL by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 5,299 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $180,000 after acquiring an additional 343 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on PPL. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on PPL from $40.00 to $39.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Barclays boosted their price target on PPL from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a report on Thursday, June 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on PPL from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Finally, Seaport Research Partners set a $42.00 target price on PPL in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $41.67.

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.