PPL (NYSE:PPL) CFO Sells $1,656,772.80 in Stock

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) CFO Ashley Johnson sold 75,035 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.08, for a total value of $1,656,772.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 1,132,122 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,997,253.76. The trade was a 6.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

PPL Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:PPL traded down $0.05 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $36.19. 13,416,092 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,838,639. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $35.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.82. PPL Corporation has a 1 year low of $33.17 and a 1 year high of $40.10. The company has a market cap of $27.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.07, a PEG ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.00.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. PPL had a net margin of 13.09% and a return on equity of 9.41%. The firm’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. Equities analysts predict that PPL Corporation will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th were paid a dividend of $0.285 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 10th. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. PPL’s payout ratio is currently 69.51%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. lifted its holdings in PPL by 293.8% in the fourth quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 1,071 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 799 shares during the last quarter. Allied Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in PPL during the second quarter worth $42,000. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in PPL during the fourth quarter worth $48,000. Root Financial Partners LLC raised its position in PPL by 72.5% in the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 2,587 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $99,000 after purchasing an additional 1,087 shares during the period. Finally, Rossby Financial LCC raised its position in PPL by 70.0% in the fourth quarter. Rossby Financial LCC now owns 3,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $105,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240 shares during the period. 76.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on PPL. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of PPL from $42.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Weiss Ratings lowered PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on PPL from $40.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on PPL from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Mizuho raised PPL to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 3rd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.67.

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.