PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) have earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nine have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $41.1667.

A number of equities analysts have commented on PPL shares. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of PPL from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 16th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $42.00 price objective on shares of PPL in a report on Friday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of PPL from $45.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Barclays upgraded PPL from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $37.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on PPL from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd.

PPL Stock Performance

PPL stock opened at $38.72 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $29.13 billion, a PE ratio of 24.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $37.46 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.74. PPL has a 12 month low of $32.50 and a 12 month high of $39.08.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $2.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.34 billion. PPL had a return on equity of 9.29% and a net margin of 13.06%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.34 EPS. PPL has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.900-1.980 EPS. Research analysts expect that PPL will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th were paid a $0.285 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 10th. This is a positive change from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 71.25%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PPL

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Align Financial LLC bought a new stake in PPL in the fourth quarter valued at $361,000. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its stake in PPL by 62.8% in the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 115,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,054,000 after buying an additional 44,657 shares during the last quarter. Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. lifted its stake in PPL by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. Williams Jones Wealth Management LLC. now owns 32,415 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,135,000 after buying an additional 2,468 shares during the last quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors lifted its stake in PPL by 28.2% in the fourth quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 12,144 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $425,000 after buying an additional 2,668 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rossby Financial LCC lifted its stake in 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 buying an additional 1,240 shares during the last quarter. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by 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.