PPL (NYSE:PPL) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.02 EPS

PPL (NYSE:PPL) announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.02, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $2.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.39 billion. PPL had a net margin of 8.90% and a return on equity of 8.45%. PPL’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.48 EPS. PPL updated its FY24 guidance to $1.63-1.75 EPS.

PPL Stock Performance

Shares of PPL traded down $0.09 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $27.91. 7,045,016 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,995,653. PPL has a twelve month low of $22.20 and a twelve month high of $28.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The company has a market cap of $20.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.00, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.81. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $26.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $26.38.

PPL Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a dividend of $0.2575 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.69%. This is an increase from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 103.00%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PPL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of PPL from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of PPL from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Barclays raised their target price on shares of PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of PPL from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, PPL currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $32.09.

About PPL

PPL Corporation, an energy company, focuses on providing electricity and natural gas to approximately 3.6 million customers in the United States. It operates through three segments: Kentucky Regulated, Pennsylvania Regulated, and Rhode Island Regulated. The company delivers electricity to customers in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, and Rhode Island; delivers natural gas to customers in Kentucky and Rhode Island; and generates electricity from power plants in Kentucky.