PPL Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:PPL)

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors purchased 5,697 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 239% compared to the average volume of 1,682 call options.

Insider Transactions at PPL

In related news, CEO William Spencer Marshall sold 200,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.92, for a total transaction of $5,184,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,703,115 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $70,064,740.80. This represents a 6.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.05, for a total transaction of $929,530.35. Following the completion of the sale, the director 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 position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 243,601 shares of company stock worth $6,283,413 over the last ninety days. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PPL

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PPL. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. grew its stake in PPL by 293.8% in the 4th quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 1,071 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 799 shares during the last quarter. Allied Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in PPL during the second quarter worth about $42,000. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of PPL in the fourth quarter valued at about $48,000. Root Financial Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of PPL by 72.5% in the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 2,587 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $99,000 after purchasing an additional 1,087 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rossby Financial LCC grew its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,240 shares during the last quarter. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on PPL shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on PPL from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays increased their price objective on PPL from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Bank of America reduced their target price on PPL from $42.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Mizuho upgraded shares of PPL to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 3rd. Finally, BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Ten 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 an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.67.

PPL Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:PPL opened at $36.25 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.82. PPL has a 12 month low of $33.17 and a 12 month high of $40.10.

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

PPL Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th were given a $0.285 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 10th. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 69.51%.

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.