PPL Corp. (PPL)
Utilities · NYSE · US
Fundamentals
Valuation and ratings
PPL Corp. trades at $36.38, close to the $31.70 our discounted cash flow model puts on the business. On this measure the market and the model broadly agree, so the interesting question is which of them is wrong.
Our moat model scores it 54 out of 100, which is a moat, but not a deep one. A moat is a structural reason competitors cannot take the profits away, and it matters more to a long holding period than any single quarter's numbers do.
It changes hands at 22.0 times earnings. Be careful reading that in isolation: for a cyclical business a low P/E arrives at the top of the cycle, when profits are peaking and about to fall, which is exactly when the shares look cheapest and are not.
About PPL Corp.
PPL Corporation provides electricity and natural gas to approximately 3.6 million customers in the United States. It operates in three segments: Kentucky Regulated, Pennsylvania Regulated, and Rhode Island Regulated. The company engages in the transmission and distribution of electricity in eastern and central Pennsylvania; generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity in Kentucky, Virginia, and Rhode Island; distribution and sale of natural gas in Kentucky and Rhode Island; sale of wholesale electricity in Kentucky; and generation of electricity from power plants in Kentucky. It generates electricity from coal, gas, hydro, and solar sources. The company was formerly known as PP&L Resources, Inc. and changed its name to PPL Corporation in 2000. PPL Corporation was founded in 1920 and is headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
PPL passes 5 of our 30 screens today
Each screen prints the exact criteria it used, and the circumstances in which it is wrong.
Smart money ownership
13 of the funds we track reported a position in their latest SEC 13F filing. Largest first:
- Israel Englander, MILLENNIUM MANAGEMENT LLC$327.99M · 0.1% of book
- Ken Griffin, CITADEL ADVISORS LLC$318.04M · 0.1% of book
- Steve Cohen, Point72 Asset Management, L.P.$216.19M · 0.3% of book
- Two Sigma, TWO SIGMA INVESTMENTS, LP$122.84M · 0.1% of book
- D. E. Shaw, D. E. Shaw & Co., Inc.$80.13M · 0.1% of book
A word of warning on reading these figures: a 13F reports the market value of a holding, so a fund that traded nothing at all still appears to have sold when the price fell. We found 102 companies where the standard reading gives the opposite answer. Only the share count is honest.
Common questions
Is PPL Corp. (PPL) undervalued?
Against our discounted cash flow estimate of $31.70, PPL at $36.38 is 13% above fair value. That is one model's answer, not a recommendation, and most of a DCF's output sits in a terminal value nobody can forecast.
Which funds own PPL?
13 of the institutions we track reported a position in PPL in their most recent SEC 13F filing. A 13F is filed up to 45 days after quarter end, so it tells you what a fund held then, not what it holds now.
What is PPL's P/E ratio?
PPL trades at 22.0 times earnings. A low P/E is not automatically cheap: on a cyclical company it is usually a warning that earnings are at a peak.
The full research page for PPL, with financial statements, ownership detail, peer comparison and alerts, is free inside the app.
Data from company filings, exchange quotes and SEC EDGAR 13F disclosures. Quotes are delayed. Metrics we do not have are left out rather than estimated. Educational information, not financial advice.