PPL (NYSE:PPL) Given New $41.00 Price Target at Barclays

PPL (NYSE:PPL) had its price target hoisted by Barclays from $40.00 to $41.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the utilities provider’s stock. Barclays‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 5.49% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also commented on PPL. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of PPL from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 16th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of PPL from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of PPL from $43.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of PPL from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of PPL from $45.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.25.

PPL Stock Performance

Shares of PPL stock traded up $0.01 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $38.87. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,351,765 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,601,264. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.86. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $37.50 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.54. The firm has a market cap of $29.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.66. PPL has a one year low of $32.50 and a one year high of $39.08.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $2.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.34 billion. PPL had a return on equity of 9.29% and a net margin of 13.06%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.34 earnings per share. PPL has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.900-1.980 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that PPL will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On PPL

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PPL. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. lifted its position in shares of PPL by 13.5% during the 3rd quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 4,336,283 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $161,136,000 after buying an additional 515,523 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in shares of PPL by 905.7% during the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 523,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $18,342,000 after buying an additional 471,679 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of PPL by 59.5% during the 3rd quarter. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP now owns 452,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,823,000 after buying an additional 168,818 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its position in shares of PPL by 62.8% during the 4th quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 115,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,054,000 after buying an additional 44,657 shares during the period. Finally, Pinebridge Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of PPL during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,060,000. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

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.