Commerce Bank Invests $9.73 Million in PPL Corporation $PPL

Commerce Bank bought a new position in shares of PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 267,590 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $9,727,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Allied Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of PPL in the 2nd quarter valued at about $42,000. Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in PPL by 206.7% during the 2nd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,291 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 870 shares during the period. Root Financial Partners LLC grew its position in PPL by 72.5% during the 1st quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 2,587 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $99,000 after acquiring an additional 1,087 shares during the last quarter. Rossby Financial LCC grew its position in PPL by 70.0% during the 4th quarter. Rossby Financial LCC now owns 3,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $105,000 after acquiring an additional 1,240 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Elyxium Wealth LLC purchased a new position in PPL in the 4th quarter worth approximately $119,000. 76.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Ashley F. Johnson sold 34,993 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 owned 561,482 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,397,522.56. This represents a 5.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kristen Robinson sold 37,107 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.05, for a total value of $929,530.35. Following the transaction, the director owned 222,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,583,569.85. This represents a 14.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

PPL Trading Up 0.1%

PPL opened at $34.42 on Monday. PPL Corporation has a 12 month low of $33.17 and a 12 month high of $40.10. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $35.83 and a 200 day moving average of $36.76. The firm has a market cap of $25.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 7th. The utilities provider reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.19 billion. PPL had a return on equity of 9.33% and a net margin of 13.47%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. PPL has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.900-1.980 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that PPL Corporation will post 1.94 EPS for the current year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, September 10th will be paid a $0.285 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 10th. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 67.46%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently issued reports on PPL shares. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of PPL from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on PPL from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on PPL from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 10th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on PPL from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating on shares of PPL in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.33.

About PPL

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.