Traders Purchase Large Volume of PPL Put Options (NYSE:PPL)

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) saw some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock traders acquired 5,620 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 261% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,555 put options.

PPL Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of PPL stock traded down $0.16 on Monday, hitting $34.04. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,705,941 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,691,838. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.57. PPL has a fifty-two week low of $33.17 and a fifty-two week high of $40.10. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $35.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.73.

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

PPL Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, September 10th will be issued a $0.285 dividend. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 10th. PPL’s payout ratio is 67.46%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director directly owned 222,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,583,569.85. The trade was a 14.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Ashley F. Johnson sold 34,993 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 approximately $12,397,522.56. This represents 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.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PPL

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in shares of PPL by 3,584.3% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 31,773,717 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,154,975,000 after acquiring an additional 30,911,313 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in PPL during the 2nd quarter valued at $187,326,000. Cullen Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in PPL in the 2nd quarter valued at $54,611,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new stake in PPL in the 2nd quarter valued at $48,651,000. Finally, Man Group plc acquired a new stake in PPL in the 2nd quarter worth $36,935,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on PPL. Evercore set a $42.00 price objective on PPL in a research report on Monday, August 17th. Weiss Ratings lowered PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Mizuho upgraded PPL to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 3rd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on PPL from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Finally, BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Ten equities 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 has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $41.00.

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.