Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Takes Position in PPL Corporation $PPL

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 123,045 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,521,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of PPL during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,893,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC acquired a new position in shares of PPL in the second quarter valued at approximately $48,651,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. bought a new position in PPL during the 2nd quarter worth about $5,111,000. Korea Investment CORP bought a new position in shares of PPL during the second quarter worth about $27,134,000. Finally, GQG Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of PPL during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $5,328,000. 76.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays lifted their target price on PPL from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective 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. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of PPL from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 21st. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $41.00.

Insider Transactions at PPL

In related news, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.05, for a total transaction of $929,530.35. Following 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 561,482 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,397,522.56. This trade represents a 5.87% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

PPL Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PPL opened at $34.20 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $25.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.57. The business’s 50 day moving average is $35.74 and its 200-day moving average is $36.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. PPL Corporation has a 1-year low of $33.17 and a 1-year high of $40.10.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.33 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.19 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.32 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. PPL has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.900-1.980 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that PPL Corporation will post 1.94 earnings per share 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 issued a dividend of $0.285 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 10th. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 67.46%.

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.