In the latest trading session, PPL (PPL) closed at $36.31, marking a -1.06% move from the previous day. The stock trailed the S&P 500, which registered a daily loss of 0.13%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.11%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.72%.
Coming into today, shares of the energy and utility holding company had gained 4.8% in the past month. In that same time, the Utilities sector gained 1.04%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.78%.
The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of PPL in its forthcoming earnings report. In that report, analysts expect PPL to post earnings of $0.41 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 20.59%. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $2.35 billion, showing a 6.33% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.
For the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.82 per share and a revenue of $9.06 billion, representing changes of +7.69% and 0%, respectively, from the prior year.
Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for PPL. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.
Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. To capitalize on this, we've crafted the Zacks Rank, a unique model that incorporates these estimate changes and offers a practical rating system.
The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.05% lower. PPL currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Looking at valuation, PPL is presently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 18.77. This denotes a premium relative to the industry average Forward P/E of 17.9.
We can additionally observe that PPL currently boasts a PEG ratio of 2.56. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Utility - Electric Power was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.59 at yesterday's closing price.
The Utility - Electric Power industry is part of the Utilities sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 83, this industry ranks in the top 34% of all industries, numbering over 250.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.
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PPL Corporation (PPL): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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