Hsbc Holdings PLC Buys Shares of 1,335,060 PPL Corporation $PPL

Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new stake in PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 1,335,060 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $48,651,000.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Allied Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of PPL during the 2nd quarter worth $42,000. Covestor Ltd boosted its position in PPL by 206.7% during the second quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,291 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 870 shares in the last quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC grew its stake in PPL by 72.5% in the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 2,587 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $99,000 after purchasing an additional 1,087 shares during the last quarter. Rossby Financial LCC grew its stake in PPL by 70.0% in the fourth quarter. Rossby Financial LCC now owns 3,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $105,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new position in PPL in the fourth quarter worth about $119,000. 76.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PPL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Mizuho raised shares of PPL to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 3rd. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of PPL from $42.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of PPL from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of PPL from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of PPL from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at PPL

In other news, CFO Ashley F. Johnson sold 34,993 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, 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 directly owned 222,897 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,583,569.85. The trade was a 14.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

PPL Trading Down 0.1%

PPL stock opened at $34.97 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $35.78 and a two-hundred day moving average of $36.75. 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 one year low of $33.17 and a one year high of $40.10. The stock has a market cap of $26.32 billion, a PE ratio of 20.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.57.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.33 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.19 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.32 EPS. PPL’s 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. On average, research analysts anticipate that PPL Corporation will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

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

PPL 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.