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PPL (PPL) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, PPL (PPL - Free Report) closed at $26.82, marking a -0.07% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.12%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.13%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 4.09%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the energy and utility holding company had lost 5.46% over the past month. This has lagged the Utilities sector's loss of 2.53% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.98% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from PPL as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect PPL to post earnings of $0.34 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 13.33%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $1.73 billion, up 2.25% from the year-ago period.

PPL's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $1.59 per share and revenue of $7.73 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +12.77% and -2.23%, 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 0.47% higher within the past month. PPL is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note PPL's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 16.88. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 16.88, which means PPL is trading at a no noticeable deviation to the group.

Investors should also note that PPL has a PEG ratio of 2.28 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. PPL's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.86 as of yesterday's close.

The Utility - Electric Power industry is part of the Utilities sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 60, which puts it in the top 24% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. 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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