Investors Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on PPL (NYSE:PPL)

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) saw some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 5,697 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 239% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,682 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at PPL

In other PPL news, Director John W. Raymond sold 6,494 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.16, for a total transaction of $169,883.04. Following the transaction, the director owned 37,114 shares in the company, valued at $970,902.24. The trade was a 14.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the director owned 222,897 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,583,569.85. This represents a 14.27% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 243,601 shares of company stock valued at $6,283,413 over the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of PPL

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in PPL by 39.5% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 19,166 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $692,000 after acquiring an additional 5,428 shares during the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP grew its holdings in PPL by 40.7% during the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 62,375 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,252,000 after acquiring an additional 18,057 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth increased its position in shares of PPL by 13.0% in the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 26,861 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $971,000 after purchasing an additional 3,084 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of PPL by 64.9% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,695 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $159,000 after purchasing an additional 1,848 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cary Street Partners Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of PPL by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 5,299 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $180,000 after purchasing an additional 343 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

PPL Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of NYSE PPL opened at $36.25 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.00. PPL has a 1 year low of $33.17 and a 1 year high of $40.10. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.82. The firm has a market cap of $27.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.10, a PEG ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.57.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.02. PPL had a return on equity of 9.41% and a net margin of 13.09%.The firm had revenue of $2.77 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. PPL’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that PPL will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th were given a $0.285 dividend. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 10th. PPL’s dividend payout ratio is presently 69.51%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PPL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Bank of America reduced their price target on PPL from $42.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Seaport Research Partners set a $42.00 target price on shares of PPL in a research report on Monday, April 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of PPL from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of PPL from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.67.

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.