Insider Selling: PPL (NYSE:PPL) Director Sells 6,494 Shares

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) Director John Raymond sold 6,494 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.16, for a total transaction of $169,883.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 37,114 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $970,902.24. This trade represents a 14.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

PPL Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of NYSE PPL traded up $0.29 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $36.40. 922,688 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,906,470. The company has a market capitalization of $27.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.57. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $35.90 and its 200 day moving average price is $36.78. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. PPL Corporation has a twelve month low of $33.17 and a twelve month high of $40.10.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.02. PPL had a net margin of 13.09% and a return on equity of 9.41%. The business had revenue of $2.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.60 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that PPL Corporation will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 10th were given a $0.285 dividend. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 10th. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 69.51%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PPL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of PPL in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on PPL from $40.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Seaport Research Partners set a $42.00 price objective on shares of PPL in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded shares of 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 issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $41.67.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PPL. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. raised its stake in shares of PPL by 293.8% during the 4th quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 1,071 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 799 shares in the last quarter. Allied Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of PPL in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of PPL in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Aventura Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in PPL in the fourth quarter worth approximately $49,000. Finally, Root Financial Partners LLC increased 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 worth $99,000 after buying an additional 1,087 shares during the last quarter. 76.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.