William Spencer Marshall Sells 200,000 Shares of PPL (NYSE:PPL) Stock

Key Points

• PPL CEO William Spencer Marshall sold 200,000 shares on July 10 at an average price of $25.92, totaling about $5.18 million. After the sale, he still held 2.7 million shares, a 6.89% reduction in his stake.
• PPL recently reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $0.63 versus the $0.61 consensus and revenue of $2.77 billion versus $2.51 billion expected. Revenue rose 10.8% year over year, and analysts currently expect full-year EPS of 1.95.
• The company continues to offer a dividend and has a generally positive analyst outlook. PPL pays a quarterly dividend of $0.285 per share, yielding about 3.1%, while analysts maintain a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” with an average price target of $41.67.

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL - Get Free Report) CEO William Spencer Marshall sold 200,000 shares of PPL stock in a transaction on Friday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.92, for a total transaction of $5,184,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,703,115 shares in the company, valued at $70,064,740.80. This represents a 6.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

PPL Price Performance

PPL stock traded up $0.29 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $36.40. 922,688 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,906,470. The business has a fifty day moving average of $35.90 and a 200 day moving average of $36.78. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. PPL Corporation has a 1-year low of $33.17 and a 1-year high of $40.10. The company has a market capitalization of $27.38 billion, a PE ratio of 22.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.57.

PPL (NYSE:PPL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The utilities provider reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.77 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.51 billion. PPL had a net margin of 13.09% and a return on equity of 9.41%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that PPL Corporation will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

PPL Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 10th were given a dividend of $0.285 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 10th. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. PPL's dividend payout ratio is 69.51%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on PPL. Weiss Ratings cut PPL from a "buy (b+)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on PPL from $40.00 to $39.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Mizuho upgraded PPL to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, July 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company restated an "overweight" rating on shares of PPL in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating on shares of PPL in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, PPL currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $41.67.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PPL. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. increased its stake in shares of PPL by 293.8% in the 4th quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 1,071 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 799 shares during the period. Allied Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of PPL during the second quarter valued at $42,000. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in PPL in the fourth quarter valued at about $48,000. Aventura Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in PPL in the fourth quarter valued at about $49,000. Finally, Root Financial Partners LLC increased its position in 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 purchasing an additional 1,087 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.99% of the company's stock.

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.

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