United Capital Financial Advisors LLC Invests $665,000 in PPL Corporation $PPL

United Capital Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 18,284 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $665,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. EP Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in PPL in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,893,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new position in shares of PPL during the 2nd quarter valued at $48,651,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. bought a new position in shares of PPL during the 2nd quarter valued at $5,111,000. GQG Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of PPL in the 2nd quarter worth $5,328,000. Finally, Korea Investment CORP purchased a new position in shares of PPL in the 2nd quarter worth $27,134,000. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

PPL Price Performance

NYSE PPL opened at $34.19 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $35.71 and its 200 day moving average is $36.71. PPL Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $33.17 and a fifty-two 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 company has a market capitalization of $25.73 billion, a PE ratio of 20.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.57.

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

PPL Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at PPL

In other PPL news, CFO Ashley F. Johnson sold 34,993 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $772,645.44. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 561,482 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,397,522.56. This trade represents a 5.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of PPL stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.05, for a total transaction of $929,530.35. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 222,897 shares in the company, valued at $5,583,569.85. This represents a 14.27% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PPL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on PPL from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of PPL from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Evercore set a $42.00 price objective on shares of PPL in a report on Monday, August 17th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, PPL has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.00.

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.