Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on PPL (NYSE:PPL)

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors bought 5,697 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 239% compared to the average volume of 1,682 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PPL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Seaport Research Partners set a $42.00 price target on shares of PPL in a report on Monday, April 20th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on PPL from $40.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on PPL from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.58.

PPL Price Performance

Shares of PPL stock traded up $0.41 on Wednesday, reaching $35.81. The company had a trading volume of 1,148,770 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,806,291. The business’s 50-day moving average is $35.83 and its 200 day moving average is $36.80. PPL has a one year low of $33.17 and a one year high of $40.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.95 billion, a PE ratio of 21.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.57.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. PPL had a net margin of 13.09% and a return on equity of 9.41%. The firm’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that PPL will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.05, for a total value of $929,530.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 222,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,583,569.85. The trade was a 14.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO William Spencer Marshall sold 200,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.92, for a total transaction of $5,184,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,703,115 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $70,064,740.80. This represents a 6.89% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 243,601 shares of company stock worth $6,283,413. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

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

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.