Legal & General Group Plc Buys Shares of 5,153,396 PPL Corporation $PPL

Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 5,153,396 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $187,326,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Allied Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in PPL in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $42,000. Covestor Ltd grew its holdings in PPL by 206.7% during the second quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,291 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 870 shares during the last quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC grew its holdings in PPL by 72.5% during the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 2,587 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $99,000 after purchasing an additional 1,087 shares during the last quarter. Rossby Financial LCC raised its position in shares of PPL by 70.0% in the fourth quarter. Rossby Financial LCC now owns 3,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $105,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240 shares during the period. Finally, Silvant Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of PPL in the second quarter valued at approximately $119,000. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, the director owned 222,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,583,569.85. This represents a 14.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Ashley F. Johnson sold 34,993 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief financial officer owned 561,482 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,397,522.56. The trade was a 5.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of PPL from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of PPL from $42.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 20th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, PPL currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.00.

PPL Stock Down 0.1%

PPL opened at $34.97 on Thursday. PPL Corporation has a 1-year low of $33.17 and a 1-year high of $40.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.57. The business has a 50 day moving average of $35.78 and a 200-day moving average of $36.75.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.19 billion. PPL had a return on equity of 9.33% and a net margin of 13.47%.The company’s revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.32 EPS. PPL has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.900-1.980 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that PPL Corporation will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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 is Thursday, September 10th. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. PPL’s payout ratio is presently 67.46%.

PPL 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.