PPL Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:PPL)

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Monday. Traders purchased 5,620 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 261% compared to the average daily volume of 1,555 put options.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Ashley F. Johnson sold 34,993 shares of PPL stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.08, for a total value of $772,645.44. Following the transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of PPL 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 in the company, valued at $5,583,569.85. This represents a 14.27% 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 Trading of PPL

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PPL. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in PPL during the 2nd quarter worth $4,521,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of PPL in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,893,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC acquired a new stake in shares of PPL in the 2nd quarter valued at about $48,651,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. bought a new position in shares of PPL during the second quarter worth about $5,111,000. Finally, GQG Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of PPL during the second quarter worth about $5,328,000. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on PPL. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. Evercore set a $42.00 target price on shares of PPL in a research note on Monday, August 17th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of PPL from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 21st. Weiss Ratings cut shares of PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded PPL to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 3rd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.00.

PPL Trading Up 0.8%

NYSE:PPL opened at $34.42 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $25.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.57. PPL has a one year low of $33.17 and a one year high of $40.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.91. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.70.

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

PPL Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 10th will be given 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 dividend yield of 3.3%. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 67.46%.

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.