Korea Investment CORP Acquires New Stake in PPL Corporation $PPL

Korea Investment CORP bought a new stake in PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 746,473 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $27,134,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 5,428 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP lifted its stake in shares of PPL by 40.7% in the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 62,375 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,252,000 after purchasing an additional 18,057 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth lifted its stake 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 period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of PPL by 64.9% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,695 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $159,000 after buying an additional 1,848 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cary Street Partners Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of PPL by 6.9% in the second quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 5,299 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $180,000 after buying an additional 343 shares during the last quarter. 76.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.05, for a total value of $929,530.35. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 222,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,583,569.85. This represents a 14.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale 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 firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.08, for a total transaction of $772,645.44. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 561,482 shares in the company, valued at $12,397,522.56. The trade was a 5.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PPL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of PPL from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of PPL from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of PPL from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of PPL from $42.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded PPL to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 3rd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.33.

PPL Stock Down 2.2%

PPL stock opened at $34.42 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $35.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.75. The stock has a market cap of $25.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.37, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. PPL Corporation has a twelve month low of $33.17 and a twelve month high of $40.10.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last released 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 return on equity of 9.33% and a net margin of 13.47%.The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.19 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. The company’s revenue 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, equities research analysts forecast that PPL Corporation will post 1.94 EPS for the current year.

PPL Announces Dividend

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

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.