PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) stock jumped 1.48% on Friday to $29.43 against a previous-day closing price of $29.00. With 9.74 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained heavier than its average volume of 5.42 million shares. During the session, the Utilities – Regulated Electric company that operates in wider Utilities sector, reached to the highest price of $29.98 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $28.94. The 52-week range on PPL shows that it touched its highest point at $30.72 and its lowest point at $24.98 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $30.87. With its current market cap of 22.07 billion, PPL has annualized dividend of $0.90 while the current yield stands at 3.06%. Beta for the stock currently stands at 0.78.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of PPL was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 2.90%, but this was up by 8.76% over a month. Three-month performance surged to 3.63% while six-month performance fell -0.34%. The stock gained 0.75% in the past year, while it has lost -2.10% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for PPL yields 0.99 with Next year EPS estimates of 1.61. For the next quarter, that number is 0.44. This implies an EPS growth rate of -97.20% for this year and 13.68% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 17.56% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of -61.50%.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 735.98 million PPL shares are outstanding with a float of 734.86 million shares on hand for trading. On Jul 14, 2022, short shares totaled 11.28 million, which was 1.53% higher than short shares on Jun 14, 2022. In addition to Mr. Vincent Sorgi as the firm’s Pres, CEO & Director, Mr. Joseph P. Bergstein Jr. serves as its Exec. VP & CFO.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 68.32% of PPL’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 40.64% of PPL, in contrast to 27.04% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 0.27%. As the largest shareholder in PPL with 11.49% of the stake, The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds 84,528,030 shares worth 84,528,030. A second-largest stockholder of PPL, BlackRock Fund Advisors, holds 44,163,157 shares, controlling over 6.00% of the firm’s shares. SSgA Funds Management, Inc. is the third largest shareholder in PPL, holding 42,759,744 shares or 5.81% stake. With a 2.95% stake in PPL, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index is the largest stakeholder. A total of 21,692,095 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund, which owns about 2.30% of PPL stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 16,942,826 shares valued at 459.66 million. Vanguard 500 Index Fund holds 2.21% of the stake in PPL, owning 16,284,262 shares worth 441.79 million.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for PPL since 16 analysts follow the stock currently. There are 8 analysts who recommend BUY ratings, while 0 suggest SELL ratings. Of the remaining analysts, 7 believe that the stock is worth HOLDING, 1 give it an OVERWEIGHT rating, and 0 thinks that it’s UNDERWEIGHT. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With PPL analysts setting a high price target of $34.00 and a low target of $28.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $31.00. Based on these targets, PPL could surge 15.53% to reach the target high and fall by -4.86% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 5.33% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy. PPL will report FY 2022 earnings on 02/16/2023. Analysts have provided yearly estimates in a range of $1.52 being high and $1.36 being low. For PPL, this leads to a yearly average estimate of $1.41. The earnings surprise of a firm occurs when the actual results change from the consensus earnings estimate. PPL Corporation surprised analysts by $0.00 when it reported $0.30 EPS against a consensus estimate of $0.30. The surprise factor in the prior quarter was $0.01. Based on analyst estimates, the high estimate for the next quarter is $0.63 and the low estimate is $0.39. The average estimate for the next quarter is thus $0.45.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded PPL stock several times over the past three months with 6 Buys and 6 Sells. In these transactions, 7,650 shares were bought while 5,514 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 23 while that of sell transactions has risen to 25 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 185,280 while 92,056 shares were sold.
