Magellan Asset Management Ltd Acquires New Stake in PPL Corporation $PPL

Magellan Asset Management Ltd bought a new position in PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 778,473 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $28,297,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Allied Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of PPL during the 2nd quarter valued at $42,000. Covestor Ltd raised its stake in PPL by 206.7% in the 2nd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,291 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 870 shares during the period. Root Financial Partners LLC raised its stake in PPL by 72.5% in the 1st quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 2,587 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $99,000 after acquiring an additional 1,087 shares during the period. Rossby Financial LCC lifted its holdings in PPL by 70.0% during 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 last quarter. Finally, Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new position in PPL during the fourth quarter worth about $119,000. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Ashley F. Johnson sold 34,993 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.08, for a total value of $772,645.44. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 561,482 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,397,522.56. This represents a 5.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of PPL stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.05, for a total value of $929,530.35. Following the sale, the director directly owned 222,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,583,569.85. This trade represents a 14.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

PPL Price Performance

NYSE:PPL opened at $34.42 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization 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 Corporation has a 52-week low of $33.17 and a 52-week high of $40.10. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $35.83 and a 200 day moving average of $36.76. 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 (NYSE:PPL) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.19 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.32 earnings per share. PPL’s 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. On average, research analysts expect that PPL Corporation will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 1st. Shareholders 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 yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 10th. PPL’s payout ratio is currently 67.46%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PPL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. 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. Barclays raised their price target on PPL from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Weiss Ratings lowered PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Evercore set a $42.00 price objective on PPL in a report on Monday, August 17th. Finally, BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.33.

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.