PPL Co. to Post Q1 2024 Earnings of $0.52 Per Share, Zacks Research Forecasts (NYSE:PPL)

PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) – Equities research analysts at Zacks Research upped their Q1 2024 EPS estimates for PPL in a research report issued on Thursday, April 25th. Zacks Research analyst R. Department now expects that the utilities provider will post earnings per share of $0.52 for the quarter, up from their previous forecast of $0.51. The consensus estimate for PPL’s current full-year earnings is $1.70 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for PPL’s Q2 2024 earnings at $0.29 EPS, FY2024 earnings at $1.70 EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at $0.56 EPS and Q1 2026 earnings at $0.58 EPS.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on PPL. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of PPL from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of PPL from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. TheStreet lowered shares of PPL from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. StockNews.com raised shares of PPL from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Argus raised shares of PPL from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, PPL currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.50.

PPL Stock Performance

Shares of PPL opened at $27.02 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The stock has a market cap of $19.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.02, a PEG ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a 50-day moving average of $26.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $26.30. PPL has a 12-month low of $22.20 and a 12-month high of $29.03.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.56 billion. PPL had a net margin of 8.90% and a return on equity of 8.45%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.28 earnings per share.

PPL Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a $0.2575 dividend. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.81%. This is an increase from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. PPL’s payout ratio is presently 103.00%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PPL

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Philadelphia Trust Co. grew its stake in PPL by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Philadelphia Trust Co. now owns 16,851 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $457,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. Mutual Advisors LLC grew its stake in PPL by 0.9% during the third quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 46,833 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,103,000 after buying an additional 415 shares during the period. Arkfeld Wealth Strategies L.L.C. grew its stake in PPL by 0.5% during the first quarter. Arkfeld Wealth Strategies L.L.C. now owns 77,512 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,087,000 after buying an additional 418 shares during the period. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its stake in PPL by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 8,192 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $222,000 after buying an additional 421 shares during the period. Finally, Wealth Alliance grew its stake in PPL by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Alliance now owns 19,792 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $536,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the period. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About PPL

PPL Corporation, an energy company, focuses on providing electricity and natural gas to approximately 3.6 million customers in the United States. It operates through three segments: Kentucky Regulated, Pennsylvania Regulated, and Rhode Island Regulated. The company delivers electricity to customers in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, and Rhode Island; delivers natural gas to customers in Kentucky and Rhode Island; and generates electricity from power plants in Kentucky.