Man Group plc Acquires New Shares in PPL Corporation $PPL

Man Group plc bought a new position in PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 1,016,081 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $36,935,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in PPL. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in shares of PPL during the second quarter valued at about $187,326,000. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. boosted its position in shares of PPL by 2.0% in 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 acquiring an additional 88,531 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG grew its stake in PPL by 23.7% during the second quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 2,056,733 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $74,762,000 after acquiring an additional 393,748 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in PPL by 9.3% during the 2nd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,837,296 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $66,786,000 after acquiring an additional 157,005 shares during the period. Finally, Cullen Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in PPL in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $54,611,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Ashley F. Johnson sold 34,993 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 directly owned 222,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,583,569.85. This trade represents a 14.27% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

PPL Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of PPL stock opened at $34.97 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.32 billion, a PE ratio of 20.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.57. PPL Corporation has a 52-week low of $33.17 and a 52-week high of $40.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.91.

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

PPL Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 10th. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. PPL’s payout ratio is currently 67.46%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PPL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of PPL from $48.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings lowered PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on PPL from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 21st. Mizuho upgraded PPL to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 3rd. Finally, BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, PPL presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.