PPL (NYSE:PPL) Stock Price Expected to Rise, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Analyst Says

PPL (NYSE:PPL) had its target price hoisted by investment analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $42.00 to $45.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s price target suggests a potential upside of 24.56% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on PPL. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Weiss Ratings cut shares of PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of PPL from $40.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of PPL from $40.00 to $39.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.92.

PPL Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of NYSE:PPL traded up $0.42 during trading on Thursday, reaching $36.13. 2,343,935 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,896,955. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $35.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.88. PPL has a 12-month low of $33.17 and a 12-month high of $40.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.18 billion, a PE ratio of 22.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.57.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.51 billion. PPL had a return on equity of 9.41% and a net margin of 13.09%.PPL’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that PPL will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at PPL

In related news, CEO William Spencer Marshall sold 200,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.92, for a total transaction of $5,184,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,703,115 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $70,064,740.80. This represents a 6.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director John W. Raymond sold 6,494 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.16, for a total transaction of $169,883.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 37,114 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $970,902.24. This trade represents a 14.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of PPL

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PPL. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. grew its stake in PPL by 293.8% during the 4th quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 1,071 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 799 shares during the last quarter. Allied Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in PPL in the second quarter valued at about $42,000. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in PPL in the fourth quarter worth about $48,000. Aventura Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in PPL in the fourth quarter worth about $49,000. Finally, Root Financial Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of PPL by 72.5% during the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 2,587 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $99,000 after acquiring an additional 1,087 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

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.