PPL (PPL) closed at $36.21 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.15% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.03%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.58%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.28%.
Coming into today, shares of the energy and utility holding company had gained 4.75% in the past month. In that same time, the Utilities sector gained 13.6%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.6%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of PPL in its upcoming release. In that report, analysts expect PPL to post earnings of $0.41 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 20.59%. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $2.35 billion, indicating a 6.33% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
PPL's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $1.81 per share and revenue of $8.74 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +7.1% and 0%, 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. Hence, positive alterations in estimates signify analyst optimism regarding the business and profitability.
Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. 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. Over the past month, there's been a 0.1% rise in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. PPL is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that PPL has a Forward P/E ratio of 18.71 right now. This signifies a premium in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 17.57 for its industry.
We can also see that PPL currently has a PEG ratio of 2.55. The PEG ratio bears resemblance to the frequently used P/E ratio, but this parameter also includes the company's expected earnings growth trajectory. PPL's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.58 as of yesterday's close.
The Utility - Electric Power industry is part of the Utilities sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 75, positioning it in the top 31% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
