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

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In the latest close session, PPL (PPL - Free Report) was up +1.69% at $34.33. The stock outperformed the S&P 500, which registered a daily gain of 0.28%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 0.43%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw an increase of 0.09%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the energy and utility holding company had lost 0.06% was narrower than the Utilities sector's loss of 0.73% and lagged the S&P 500's gain of 4.37%.

Market participants will be closely following the financial results of PPL in its upcoming release. On that day, PPL is projected to report earnings of $0.39 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 2.63%. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $1.98 billion, indicating a 5.52% upward movement from the same quarter last year.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.82 per share and revenue of $8.91 billion, which would represent changes of +7.69% and +5.27%, respectively, from the prior year.

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. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.

Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.09% higher. Right now, PPL possesses a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, PPL is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 18.55. This signifies a premium in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 17.88 for its industry.

We can also see that PPL currently has a PEG ratio of 2.49. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The average PEG ratio for the Utility - Electric Power industry stood at 2.59 at the close of the market yesterday.

The Utility - Electric Power industry is part of the Utilities sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 82, 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.

Keep in mind to rely on Zacks.com to watch all these stock-impacting metrics, and more, in the succeeding trading sessions.


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