Forensic Analysis · Utilities · as of Aug 11, 2026

Ppl Corp (PPL)

A forensic read on Ppl Corp built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.

C · Mixed — selective

Forensic grade

Grey Zone

Financial health

1.4

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

21.9

P / E (ttm)

7.9%

ROE

$26.3B

Market cap

3.29%

Dividend yield

6.9%

Revenue growth

This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.

Ppl Corp earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.4, placing it in the Grey zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by shareholder returns.

What the filings flag

FCF ($1.4B)

FY2025

Shareholder returns. Returned $794M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025, but free cash flow was ($1.4B) after capex — there was no free cash flow to fund the payout from at all, though operating cash flow alone was $2.6B — 30% of that. The entire return is coming from debt or cash reserves, not cash the business itself generated — a harder case than returns merely running ahead of free cash flow, since here there was none to run ahead of.

4.2%

FY2025

Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is 4.2% in the latest fiscal year and steady — slightly below its ~6% cost of capital — reinvestment is roughly a wash.

+0.3%/yr

FY2022–FY2025

Share count. Diluted share count changed +1% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+0.3%/yr). Roughly flat — the count is neither shrinking nor growing meaningfully. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.

-36%

FY2021→FY2022

Dividend — cut. The payout was CUT ~36% in FY2022 (from FY2021) and hasn't been restored since. It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$9.04B

Revenue Growth YoY+6.9%

Revenue CAGR (3yr)+4.6%

Net Margin13.1%

Free Cash Flow-$1.40B

Return on Equity7.9%

Debt / Equity1.27x

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Aug 11, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.