Royal Bank Of Canada Upgrades PPL (NYSE:PPL) to “Hold”

PPL (NYSE:PPL) was upgraded by equities researchers at Royal Bank Of Canada to a “hold” rating in a report released on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm presently has a $35.00 price target on the utilities provider’s stock. Royal Bank Of Canada’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 4.82% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on PPL. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of PPL from $42.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on PPL from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on PPL from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 21st. Mizuho upgraded PPL to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 3rd. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on PPL from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $40.54.

PPL Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:PPL opened at $33.39 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $35.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.45. PPL has a twelve month low of $33.17 and a twelve month high of $40.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.13 billion, a PE ratio of 19.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.57.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $2.19 billion. During the same quarter last 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. Equities research analysts expect that PPL will post 1.94 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other PPL news, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.05, for a total transaction of $929,530.35. Following the sale, the director directly owned 222,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,583,569.85. This trade represents a 14.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 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 transaction, the chief financial officer owned 561,482 shares in the company, valued at $12,397,522.56. The trade was a 5.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of PPL

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in PPL by 494.5% in the 2nd quarter. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. now owns 862 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 717 shares during the period. Allied Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of PPL during the second quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Covestor Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of PPL by 206.7% in the second quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,291 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 870 shares in the last quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of PPL by 72.5% in the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 2,587 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $99,000 after buying an additional 1,087 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Silvant Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of PPL during the second quarter worth $119,000. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

About PPL

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) is an energy and utility holding company headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Through its regulated utility subsidiaries, the company delivers electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers, while also operating and maintaining generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure.

PPL’s Pennsylvania operations are conducted through PPL Electric Utilities, which provides electric delivery service across much of central and eastern Pennsylvania.