PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) Given Average Recommendation of “Buy” by Brokerages

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) has received an average recommendation of “Buy” from the twelve ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have issued a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $41.20.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays boosted their price objective on PPL from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on PPL from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on PPL from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Bank of America upped their price target on PPL from $38.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of PPL in a report on Monday, October 6th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $43.00 price objective on the stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PPL

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. raised its holdings in PPL by 4.5% during the third quarter. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. now owns 6,924 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $257,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of PPL by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 10,422 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $376,000 after purchasing an additional 302 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of PPL by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 8,984 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $304,000 after purchasing an additional 311 shares in the last quarter. First Bank & Trust raised its stake in shares of PPL by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. First Bank & Trust now owns 44,939 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,523,000 after purchasing an additional 324 shares in the last quarter. Finally, WealthTrust Axiom LLC boosted its holdings in shares of PPL by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. WealthTrust Axiom LLC now owns 8,579 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $310,000 after buying an additional 337 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

PPL Stock Performance

Shares of PPL stock opened at $34.29 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $36.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $35.75. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. The company has a market capitalization of $25.37 billion, a PE ratio of 23.17, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.69. PPL has a 12 month low of $31.22 and a 12 month high of $38.26.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The utilities provider reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.02. PPL had a return on equity of 9.08% and a net margin of 12.16%.During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.42 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. PPL has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.780-1.840 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that PPL will post 1.83 EPS for the current year.

PPL Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 10th will be given a dividend of $0.2725 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 10th. This represents a $1.09 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.2%. PPL’s payout ratio is 73.65%.

PPL Company 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.