PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) Receives $41.20 Average Target Price from Analysts

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the twelve ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $41.20.

A number of research firms recently commented on PPL. BTIG Research upgraded PPL to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of PPL from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of PPL in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of PPL from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of PPL in a research report on Monday, October 6th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $43.00 target price on the stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PPL. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. raised 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 acquiring an additional 515,523 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of PPL by 905.7% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 523,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $18,342,000 after acquiring an additional 471,679 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP raised its holdings in PPL by 59.5% in the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 452,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,823,000 after purchasing an additional 168,818 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp increased its holdings in shares of PPL by 13.8% in the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 372,442 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,622,000 after acquiring an additional 45,154 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA raised its holdings in PPL by 12.4% during the 2nd quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA now owns 298,908 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $10,130,000 after buying an additional 32,945 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

PPL Trading Up 3.1%

NYSE PPL opened at $36.82 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. PPL has a 1-year low of $32.24 and a 1-year high of $38.26. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $35.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.92. The company has a market capitalization of $27.24 billion, a PE ratio of 24.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.70.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.02. PPL had a return on equity of 9.08% and a net margin of 12.16%.During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.42 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. PPL has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.780-1.840 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that PPL will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PPL Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 10th were given a dividend of $0.2725 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 10th. This represents a $1.09 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. PPL’s payout ratio is 73.65%.

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.