Morgan Stanley Cuts PPL (NYSE:PPL) Price Target to $42.00

PPL (NYSE:PPL) had its price target trimmed by Morgan Stanley from $43.00 to $42.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the utilities provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore set a $42.00 price target on shares of PPL in a research note on Monday, August 17th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a report on Thursday, June 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of PPL from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. 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 assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.33.

PPL Price Performance

PPL stock opened at $34.42 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $35.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $36.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.57. PPL has a 1 year low of $33.17 and a 1 year high of $40.10.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by ($0.01). PPL had a return on equity of 9.33% and a net margin of 13.47%.The company had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.19 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.32 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. PPL has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.900-1.980 EPS. Analysts anticipate that PPL will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, September 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.285 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 10th. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.3%. PPL’s payout ratio is presently 67.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling at PPL

In other PPL news, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.05, for a total value of $929,530.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 222,897 shares in the company, valued at $5,583,569.85. This represents a 14.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Ashley F. Johnson sold 34,993 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.08, for a total value of $772,645.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 561,482 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,397,522.56. The trade was a 5.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On PPL

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in shares of PPL in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $187,326,000. Cullen Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of PPL in the second quarter valued at $54,611,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC acquired a new stake in shares of PPL during the 2nd quarter valued at $48,651,000. Man Group plc bought a new stake in shares of PPL during the 2nd quarter worth $36,935,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new position in shares of PPL in the 2nd quarter worth $33,729,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.