VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Buys Shares of 132,400 PPL Corporation $PPL

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new position in PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 132,400 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,813,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PPL. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of PPL by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 9,325 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $347,000 after buying an additional 341 shares during the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of PPL by 6.9% in the 2nd 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 grew its position 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 buying an additional 429 shares during the period. Syon Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of PPL by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. Syon Capital LLC now owns 8,823 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $321,000 after acquiring an additional 448 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Plimoth Trust Co. LLC grew its position in shares of PPL by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC now owns 12,240 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $468,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other PPL news, CFO Ashley F. Johnson sold 34,993 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.08, for a total transaction 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 15th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,583,569.85. The trade was a 14.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Barclays upped their price objective on PPL from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on PPL from $48.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on PPL from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 21st. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on PPL from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price objective on PPL from $42.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, PPL presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.00.

PPL Trading Down 0.1%

PPL stock opened at $35.08 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.73. PPL Corporation has a 1-year low of $33.17 and a 1-year high of $40.10. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.62. The company has a market capitalization of $26.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.76, a PEG ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 0.57.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.19 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.32 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. PPL has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.900-1.980 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that PPL Corporation will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPL Announces Dividend

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 issued a $0.285 dividend. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 10th. PPL’s payout ratio is currently 67.46%.

About PPL

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.