John Raymond Sells 6,494 Shares of PPL (NYSE:PPL) Stock

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) Director John Raymond sold 6,494 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.16, for a total transaction of $169,883.04. Following the sale, the director owned 37,114 shares in the company, valued at $970,902.24. This trade represents a 14.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

PPL Stock Up 1.7%

PPL stock opened at $36.33 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.33 billion, a PE ratio of 22.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.57. PPL Corporation has a twelve month low of $33.17 and a twelve month 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 company has a 50 day moving average of $35.87 and a 200-day moving average of $36.79.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last issued 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% 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, equities research analysts anticipate that PPL Corporation will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPL Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th were paid a $0.285 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 10th. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.1%. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 69.51%.

Institutional Trading of PPL

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its stake in PPL by 3.8% in the third quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 9,325 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $347,000 after purchasing an additional 341 shares in the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of PPL by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 5,299 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $180,000 after purchasing an additional 343 shares in the last quarter. Busey Bank boosted its holdings in shares of PPL by 6.2% in the 4th quarter. Busey Bank now owns 6,005 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $210,000 after buying an additional 351 shares during the last quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of PPL by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC now owns 49,157 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,723,000 after buying an additional 429 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Plimoth Trust Co. LLC grew its stake in shares of PPL by 3.8% in the first quarter. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC now owns 12,240 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $468,000 after buying an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting PPL

Here are the key news stories impacting PPL this week:

• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its price target on PPL from $42 to $45 and reiterated an overweight rating, signaling continued confidence in the utility’s upside potential. Article source
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain broadly constructive, with PPL still carrying a Moderate Buy consensus and a target price above recent trading levels.
• Neutral Sentiment: The company’s long-term growth story is being supported by its $23 billion grid investment plan, which targets reliability improvements, fewer outages, and about 10.3% annual rate base growth through 2029. Article source
• Neutral Sentiment: PPL also continues to back shareholders with a 3.2% dividend yield after its recent quarterly payout.
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider selling may be creating some caution, including sales by CEO William Spencer Marshall and directors John Raymond and Kristen Robinson, which can weigh on sentiment even if the transactions were likely routine. Article source

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on PPL from $40.00 to $39.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Seaport Research Partners set a $42.00 target price on PPL in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Mizuho upgraded PPL to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 3rd. Barclays upped their price target on PPL from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of PPL from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, PPL presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.92.

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.