PPL Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:PPL)

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors acquired 5,697 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 239% compared to the average daily volume of 1,682 call options.

PPL Stock Performance

Shares of PPL stock traded up $0.41 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $35.81. The stock had a trading volume of 1,148,770 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,806,291. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.95 billion, a PE ratio of 21.84, a PEG ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.57. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $35.83 and its 200 day moving average is $36.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.88. PPL has a twelve month low of $33.17 and a twelve month high of $40.10.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last released its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. PPL had a return on equity of 9.41% and a net margin of 13.09%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that PPL will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PPL Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th were paid a dividend of $0.285 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 10th. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. PPL’s dividend payout ratio is 69.51%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO William Spencer Marshall sold 200,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.92, for a total value of $5,184,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,703,115 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $70,064,740.80. The trade was a 6.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.05, for a total transaction of $929,530.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 222,897 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,583,569.85. This represents a 14.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have sold 243,601 shares of company stock valued at $6,283,413. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. raised its position in shares of PPL by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 4,424,814 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $154,957,000 after buying an additional 88,531 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of PPL by 905.7% during the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 523,756 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $18,342,000 after buying an additional 471,679 shares during the period. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA increased its holdings in shares of PPL by 7.8% during the 4th quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA now owns 348,335 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,199,000 after buying an additional 25,172 shares during the last quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY increased its holdings in shares of PPL by 5.8% during the 4th quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 344,670 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,070,000 after buying an additional 18,840 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State of Tennessee Department of Treasury raised its position in shares of PPL by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury now owns 249,204 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $8,446,000 after buying an additional 9,118 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on PPL. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on PPL from $40.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Mizuho raised PPL to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 3rd. Seaport Research Partners set a $42.00 target price on PPL in a report on Monday, April 20th. Weiss Ratings downgraded PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on PPL from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.58.

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.