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PPL (PPL) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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PPL (PPL - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $27.59, moving +0.95% from the previous trading session. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.51%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.44%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.1%.

Heading into today, shares of the energy and utility holding company had gained 5.36% over the past month, lagging the Utilities sector's gain of 8.36% and the S&P 500's gain of 5.51% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from PPL as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, PPL is projected to report earnings of $0.43 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 53.57%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $1.62 billion, up 8.44% from the year-ago period.

PPL's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $1.47 per share and revenue of $6.38 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +40% and +10.28%, respectively.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for PPL. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.23% higher within the past month. PPL is holding a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) right now.

Investors should also note PPL's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 18.59. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 19.16, which means PPL is trading at a discount to the group.

The Utility - Electric Power industry is part of the Utilities sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 209, which puts it in the bottom 18% of all 250+ industries.

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.

To follow PPL in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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