Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP Purchases 168,818 Shares of PPL Corporation $PPL

Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP increased its position in shares of PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) by 59.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 452,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 168,818 shares during the period. PPL accounts for 0.4% of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest holding. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP owned 0.06% of PPL worth $16,823,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. increased its stake in PPL by 13.5% in the 3rd quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 4,336,283 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $161,136,000 after buying an additional 515,523 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp boosted its stake in shares of PPL by 13.8% in the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 372,442 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,622,000 after acquiring an additional 45,154 shares during the period. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY boosted its stake in shares of PPL by 2.0% in the third quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 325,830 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,108,000 after acquiring an additional 6,453 shares during the period. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA grew its position in shares of PPL by 8.1% during the third quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA now owns 323,163 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,009,000 after purchasing an additional 24,255 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its stake in PPL by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 304,235 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $11,305,000 after purchasing an additional 5,200 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on PPL from $45.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of PPL from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $42.00 target price on shares of PPL in a research note on Friday. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of PPL from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of PPL from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.00.

PPL Trading Up 2.2%

PPL stock opened at $38.10 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $35.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.16. PPL Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $32.50 and a fifty-two week high of $38.26. The firm has a market cap of $28.62 billion, a PE ratio of 23.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.86.

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

PPL Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be given a $0.285 dividend. This is an increase from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.13%.

PPL 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.