BMO Capital Markets Cuts PPL (NYSE:PPL) Price Target to $38.00

PPL (NYSE:PPL) had its price objective cut by BMO Capital Markets from $40.00 to $38.00 in a report released on Monday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on PPL from $40.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on PPL from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Barclays upped their price objective on PPL from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, PPL has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.50.

PPL Price Performance

PPL stock opened at $35.36 on Monday. PPL has a one year low of $33.17 and a one year high of $40.10. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $35.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.91. The company has a market capitalization of $26.61 billion, a PE ratio of 20.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.19 billion. PPL had a net margin of 13.47% and a return on equity of 9.33%. The business’s revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.32 earnings per share. PPL has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.900-1.980 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that PPL will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at PPL

In other PPL news, CFO Ashley F. Johnson sold 34,993 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.08, for a total value of $772,645.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 561,482 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,397,522.56. The trade was a 5.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 15th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $5,583,569.85. This represents a 14.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of PPL by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 4,424,814 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $154,957,000 after buying an additional 88,531 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG grew its position in shares of PPL by 23.7% during the 2nd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 2,056,733 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $74,762,000 after buying an additional 393,748 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of PPL by 9.3% during the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,837,296 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $66,786,000 after buying an additional 157,005 shares during the period. Korea Investment CORP purchased a new position in shares of PPL during the second quarter valued at $27,134,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp increased its stake in shares of PPL by 2.9% during the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 355,841 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,935,000 after buying an additional 10,015 shares during the period. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.