Forensic Analysis · Utilities · as of Sep 24, 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
1.3
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
19.8
P / E (ttm)
7.9%
ROE
$24.3B
Market cap
3.65%
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, going concern, valuation). 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 1.3, 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 across FY2021–FY2025, inside a 1.1-point range — slightly below the ~6% cost of capital we hold this sector to — reinvestment to date is roughly a wash. The capital base behind it grew +46% across FY2021–FY2025, from $27.8B to $40.5B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the 3% the older base was already earning.
+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
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Ppl Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?