Great Lakes Advisors LLC Takes Position in PPL Corporation $PPL

Great Lakes Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 51,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,881,000.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in PPL by 3.8% in the third quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 9,325 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $347,000 after acquiring an additional 341 shares during the period. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC lifted its stake in PPL by 6.9% during the second quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 5,299 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $180,000 after purchasing an additional 343 shares during the period. Ethos Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in PPL by 0.9% during the first quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC now owns 49,157 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,723,000 after purchasing an additional 429 shares in the last quarter. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC grew its stake in shares of PPL by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC now owns 12,240 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $468,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the period. Finally, Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. grew its stake in shares of PPL by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. now owns 7,411 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $283,000 after purchasing an additional 487 shares during the period. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on PPL from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Mizuho raised PPL to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 3rd. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of PPL from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Evercore set a $42.00 target price on shares of PPL in a report on Monday. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, PPL currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.33.

PPL Stock Down 2.2%

NYSE:PPL opened at $34.42 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $25.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 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 company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.91. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $35.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $36.75.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last issued its earnings results on Friday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.34 by ($0.01). PPL had a net margin of 13.47% and a return on equity of 9.33%. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.19 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.32 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter 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, analysts anticipate that PPL Corporation will post 1.94 EPS for the current year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 10th will be given a dividend of $0.285 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 10th. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 67.46%.

Insider Transactions at PPL

In other news, 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 transaction of $929,530.35. Following the transaction, the director owned 222,897 shares in the company, valued at $5,583,569.85. The trade was a 14.27% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Ashley F. Johnson sold 34,993 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.08, for a total value of $772,645.44. Following the completion of 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

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.