Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Purchases New Holdings in PPL Corporation $PPL

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. acquired a new stake in shares of PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 47,035 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,710,000.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allied Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of PPL in the second quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Covestor Ltd raised its stake in shares of PPL by 206.7% during the second quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,291 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 870 shares during the last quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of PPL by 72.5% during the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 2,587 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $99,000 after purchasing an additional 1,087 shares during the period. Rossby Financial LCC lifted its holdings in shares of PPL by 70.0% during the fourth quarter. Rossby Financial LCC now owns 3,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $105,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240 shares during the period. Finally, Elyxium Wealth LLC purchased a new position in PPL in the 4th quarter valued at $119,000. 76.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at PPL

In other PPL news, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 222,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,583,569.85. This trade represents a 14.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Ashley F. Johnson sold 34,993 shares of PPL stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.08, for a total transaction of $772,645.44. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 561,482 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on PPL. Mizuho raised shares of PPL to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 3rd. Barclays raised their target price on shares of PPL from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of PPL from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of PPL from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, PPL has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.33.

PPL Trading Up 1.9%

NYSE:PPL opened at $35.04 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $35.81 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.73, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.91. PPL Corporation has a 1 year low of $33.17 and a 1 year high of $40.10.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last issued its earnings results on Friday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $2.19 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.32 earnings per share. PPL’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. PPL has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.900-1.980 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that PPL Corporation will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

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

About PPL

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.