146,224 Shares in PPL Corporation $PPL Acquired by Equitable Holdings Inc.

Equitable Holdings Inc. bought a new position in PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 146,224 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,315,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of PPL. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of PPL during the second quarter valued at approximately $187,326,000. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. lifted its position in shares of PPL by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 4,424,814 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $154,957,000 after acquiring an additional 88,531 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in PPL by 23.7% in the 2nd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 2,056,733 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $74,762,000 after purchasing an additional 393,748 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in PPL by 9.3% in the 2nd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,837,296 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $66,786,000 after purchasing an additional 157,005 shares during the period. Finally, Cullen Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in PPL during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $54,611,000. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets reduced 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. Weiss Ratings downgraded PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on PPL from $48.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on PPL from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of PPL from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Ten equities research 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 stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $41.00.

PPL Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of NYSE PPL opened at $34.45 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $25.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.39, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.57. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.74. 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.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $2.11 billion during 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 was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.32 earnings per share. PPL has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.900-1.980 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that PPL Corporation will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

The business 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. 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 payout ratio is currently 67.46%.

Insider Activity at PPL

In related news, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the transaction, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Ashley F. Johnson sold 34,993 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.08, for a total transaction of $772,645.44. Following the completion of the sale, 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 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.