PPL (NYSE:PPL) Price Target Raised to $42.00

PPL (NYSE:PPL) had its price objective raised by research analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $41.00 to $42.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ target price points to a potential upside of 8.53% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on PPL. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of PPL from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $42.00 price target on shares of PPL in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of PPL from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of PPL from $43.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of PPL from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $37.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.17.

PPL Trading Up 0.5%

PPL stock traded up $0.19 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $38.70. The stock had a trading volume of 262,914 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,305,663. PPL has a twelve month low of $32.50 and a twelve month high of $39.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.08 billion, a PE ratio of 24.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.86. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $36.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.31.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $2.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.34 billion. PPL had a net margin of 13.06% and a return on equity of 9.29%. PPL’s revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.34 EPS. PPL has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.900-1.980 EPS. Analysts expect that PPL will post 1.83 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PPL

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PPL. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. grew its position in shares of PPL by 13.5% during 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 buying an additional 515,523 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in PPL by 905.7% during the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 523,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $18,342,000 after acquiring an additional 471,679 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP grew its holdings in PPL by 59.5% during the 3rd quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 452,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,823,000 after acquiring an additional 168,818 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its position in shares of PPL by 62.8% in the 4th quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 115,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,054,000 after purchasing an additional 44,657 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pinebridge Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of PPL in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,060,000. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.