Commerce Bank Buys New Position in PPL Corporation $PPL

Commerce Bank bought a new stake in shares of PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 267,590 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $9,727,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allied Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of PPL during the second quarter worth $42,000. Covestor Ltd raised its stake in PPL by 206.7% during the second quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,291 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 870 shares during the last quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 1,087 shares during the period. Rossby Financial LCC lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 1,240 shares during the period. Finally, Silvant Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in PPL in the second quarter valued at $119,000. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

PPL Trading Up 0.1%

NYSE:PPL opened at $34.42 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.37, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.57. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $35.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.76. PPL Corporation has a 12 month low of $33.17 and a 12 month high of $40.10.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.34 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.19 billion. PPL had a net margin of 13.47% and a return on equity of 9.33%. PPL’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.32 EPS. PPL has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.900-1.980 EPS. Analysts expect that PPL Corporation will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PPL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America decreased their price target on PPL from $42.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on PPL from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Weiss Ratings cut PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on PPL from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 10th. Finally, BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, PPL has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other PPL news, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Ashley F. Johnson sold 34,993 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 23rd. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $12,397,522.56. The trade was a 5.87% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.