GQG Partners LLC Takes $5.33 Million Position in PPL Corporation $PPL

GQG Partners LLC acquired a new position in PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 146,588 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,328,000.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allied Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of PPL in the second quarter worth $42,000. Covestor Ltd lifted its stake in PPL by 206.7% in the 2nd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,291 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 870 shares in the last quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC boosted its position in PPL by 72.5% during the 1st 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 period. Rossby Financial LCC boosted its position in PPL by 70.0% during the 4th quarter. Rossby Financial LCC now owns 3,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $105,000 after acquiring an additional 1,240 shares during the period. Finally, Elyxium Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of PPL in the 4th quarter valued at about $119,000. 76.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on PPL shares. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of PPL from $42.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Evercore set a $42.00 target price on shares of PPL in a research note on Monday, August 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of PPL from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of PPL from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Ten research 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 currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.05, for a total transaction of $929,530.35. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 222,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,583,569.85. This represents a 14.27% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Ashley F. Johnson sold 34,993 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.08, for a total transaction of $772,645.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 561,482 shares in the company, valued at $12,397,522.56. The trade was a 5.87% 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 insiders.

PPL Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE PPL opened at $34.42 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.75. 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 Corporation has a 52 week low of $33.17 and a 52 week high of $40.10. The firm has a market cap of $25.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.57.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last posted its 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 company had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.19 billion. PPL had a return on equity of 9.33% and a net margin of 13.47%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.32 earnings per share. PPL has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.900-1.980 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that PPL Corporation will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 10th. PPL’s payout ratio is presently 67.46%.

About PPL

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.