Traders Purchase Large Volume of PPL Put Options (NYSE:PPL)

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Stock traders acquired 5,620 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 261% compared to the typical volume of 1,555 put options.

Insider Transactions at PPL

In related news, CFO Ashley F. Johnson sold 34,993 shares of PPL stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.08, for a total transaction of $772,645.44. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 561,482 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,397,522.56. This trade represents a 5.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.05, for a total value of $929,530.35. Following the transaction, the director owned 222,897 shares in the company, valued at $5,583,569.85. This represents a 14.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PPL

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PPL. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its position in PPL by 3.8% during the third quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 9,325 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $347,000 after purchasing an additional 341 shares in the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of PPL by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 5,299 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $180,000 after buying an additional 343 shares in the last quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of PPL by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC now owns 49,157 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,723,000 after buying an additional 429 shares in the last quarter. Syon Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of PPL by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. Syon Capital LLC now owns 8,823 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $321,000 after buying an additional 448 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Plimoth Trust Co. LLC lifted its position in shares of PPL by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC now owns 12,240 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $468,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

PPL Price Performance

Shares of PPL traded down $0.16 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $34.04. The company had a trading volume of 1,705,941 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,691,838. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The company has a market capitalization of $25.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.57. PPL has a twelve month low of $33.17 and a twelve month high of $40.10. The company’s 50-day moving average is $35.74 and its 200-day moving average is $36.73.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.34 by ($0.01). PPL had a net margin of 13.47% and a return on equity of 9.33%. The company had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.19 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.32 EPS. PPL’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. PPL has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.900-1.980 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that PPL will post 1.94 EPS for the current year.

PPL Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 10th will be paid a $0.285 dividend. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 10th. PPL’s payout ratio is currently 67.46%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PPL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barclays upped their target price on PPL from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of PPL from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Mizuho upgraded shares of PPL to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 3rd. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of PPL from $48.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, PPL presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.00.

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.