Empowered Funds LLC Invests $1.44 Million in PPL Corporation $PPL

Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new stake in PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 39,559 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,438,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Woodline Partners LP lifted its stake in shares of PPL by 40.7% in the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 62,375 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,252,000 after purchasing an additional 18,057 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth increased its position in shares of PPL by 13.0% during the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 26,861 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $971,000 after acquiring an additional 3,084 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in PPL by 64.9% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,695 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $159,000 after acquiring an additional 1,848 shares during the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC increased its position in shares of PPL by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 5,299 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $180,000 after purchasing an additional 343 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its position in shares of PPL by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 73,345 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,486,000 after buying an additional 1,650 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at PPL

In other PPL news, 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 transaction 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. This represents a 14.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Ashley 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 transaction 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on PPL shares. Evercore set a $42.00 target price on PPL in a research note on Monday, August 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of PPL from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on PPL from $42.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of PPL from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Finally, Mizuho raised shares of PPL to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 3rd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, PPL currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $41.00.

PPL Stock Performance

PPL opened at $35.09 on Friday. PPL Corporation has a 1 year low of $33.17 and a 1 year high of $40.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The stock has a market cap of $26.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.76, a P/E/G ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 0.57. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $35.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.66.

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

PPL Announces Dividend

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 3.2%. PPL’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.