PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) Declares Dividend Increase – $0.29 Per Share

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.285 per share by the utilities provider on Wednesday, April 1st. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. This is a 4.6% increase from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27.

PPL has decreased its dividend by an average of 0.1%per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 3 consecutive years. PPL has a payout ratio of 58.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect PPL to earn $1.97 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.14 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 57.9%.

PPL Stock Performance

NYSE:PPL opened at $38.52 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.08, a PEG ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.70. The company’s 50-day moving average is $36.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $36.26. PPL has a 1-year low of $32.50 and a 1-year high of $39.08.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PPL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on PPL from $45.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on PPL from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of PPL from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of PPL from $43.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $42.00 price target on shares of PPL in a research report on Friday, February 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, PPL currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.00.

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.