4 Reasons To Add PPL Corp (PPL) For Enriching Your Portfolio

PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL) is currently gaining momentum from its huge investments in strengthening the generation, transmission and distribution operation. This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) utility stock is a promising bet and its focus on expanding its operation will further boost its performance.

Let’s highlight the important factors that make PPL Corporation a profitable stock to retain for greater returns.

Solid Growth Estimates & Surprise Track: The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2020 earnings per share is pegged at $2.54 on $8.13 billion revenues. While the top line implies a 4.09% increase, the bottom line suggests a 5.23% improvement from the year-ago figures.

PPL Corporation’s trailing four-quarter average positive earnings surprise is 1.40%.

Sturdy Price Movement: Shares of PPL Corporation have rallied 20.4% in the past six months, outperforming the industry’s growth of 11.8%.

Long-Term Investments

The company’s capital investment plan primarily focuses on infrastructure-building projects for generation, transmission and distribution. It intends to invest nearly $15 billion through the 2019-2023 period, aiming to strengthen grid, expanding renewable generation capacity and concentrating on new technology to serve customers more efficiently. The company expects to recover 70% of its capex within six months and more than 80% within a year, leading to higher spending that bodes well for the long haul.

Consistent Dividend Payouts

The company has a pleasant history of steady dividend payouts year after year. Last Nov, the company declared a quarterly common stock dividend of 41.25 cents per share, paid out on Jan 2, 2020 to its shareowners. This represents the company’s 296th consecutive quarterly dividend. The strong cash flow generation capacity enables it to approve frequent dividends to its shareholders.

The current dividend yield of the company is 4.52%, outperforming the industry average of 2.81%.

Other Stocks to Consider

Other top-ranked stocks in the utility sector include Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) , NorthWestern Corporation (NYSE:NWE) and Atmos Energy Corporation (NYSE:ATO) , all holding a Zacks Rank of 2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Entergy Corporation, NorthWestern Corporation, and Atmos Energy Corporation delivered an average four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 4.79%, 10.49% and 3.18%, respectively.

Long-term earnings per share growth rate of Entergy Corporation, NorthWestern Corporation and Atmos Energy Corporation is projected at 7%, 3.53% and 7.15%, respectively.

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