Feb. 20, 2026
— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
PPL Corp. reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results today and raised its quarterly dividend.
This is the same company that’s seeking to increase the cost of delivering electricity to Lehigh Valley customers by about $12 monthly, so the dividend boost to 28.5 cents from 27.25 cents per common share may raise some ire.
Your pain may be shareholders’ gain. Disclosure: I own shares of PPL, but I pay the electric bill too.
Chief Executive Vincent Sorgi said PPL is working to keep to keep energy bills “affordable.”
He said the company is “enhancing low-income customer programs” and focusing on efficiency. The company is also working to add “new generation resources” to the regional electricity grid.
Fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share were 41 cents per share, or $1.34 billion total. Adjusted earnings exclude items companies consider to be one-time or unusual, though they happen a lot. Quarterly earnings under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), which don’t allow for adjustments, were 36 cents.
PPL forecast 2026 adjusted earnings of $1.90 to $1.98, 7% above the $1.81 recorded in the full-year 2025. The Allentown-based energy company also extended its earnings-per-share growth target of 6% to 8% through “at least 2029.”
Shares in the company (NYSE:PPL) were up 55 cents to $37.52 at 10:22 a.m. Friday, giving the company a market capitalization of $27.8 billion.
Earnings reports are long and nobody reads long earning stories, so I posted a link to the statement below.
A couple notes on earnings:
— I focus on the fourth quarter because 75% of the annual number is already out.
— A lot of people object to earnings adjustments, but that’s the number Wall Street looks for, so I always note it. I agree that adjustments can be a way of gaming the system, but that’s just the way it is.
— Forecasts are usually more important than the latest numbers.
Here is a link to the PPL earnings statement and below is a cut-and-paste abbreviated version without the tables at the end:
PPL Corporation reports 2025 earnings results; provides business plan update through 2029, extending EPS growth targets
- Announces 2025 reported earnings (GAAP) of $1.59 per share.
- Achieves earnings from ongoing operations of $1.81 per share – 7.1% growth over 2024.
- Provides 2026 earnings forecast range of $1.90 to $1.98 per share; midpoint of $1.94 per share represents a 7.2% increase over 2025 ongoing earnings.
- Extends annual EPS growth target of 6% to 8% through at least 2029; expects EPS compound annual growth rate through 2029 to be near the top end of targeted range off of 2025 results.
- Updates capital plan to $23 billion of projected infrastructure investments from 2026 through 2029, resulting in average annual rate base growth of ~ 10.3% over the period.
- Announces increase in quarterly common stock dividend to $0.2850 per share.
ALLENTOWN, Pa., Feb. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) today announced 2025 reported earnings (GAAP) of $1.18 billion, or $1.59 per share, compared with 2024 reported earnings of $888 million, or $1.20 per share.
Adjusting for special items, 2025 earnings from ongoing operations (non-GAAP) were $1.34 billion, or $1.81 per share, compared with $1.25 billion, or $1.69 per share, a year ago.
PPL’s fourth-quarter 2025 reported earnings were $266 million, or $0.36 per share, compared with fourth-quarter 2024 reported earnings of $177 million, or $0.24 per share.
Adjusting for special items, fourth-quarter 2025 earnings from ongoing operations were $305 million, or $0.41 per share, compared with fourth-quarter 2024 earnings from ongoing operations of $256 million, or $0.34 per share.
“As the energy landscape continues to transform at an unprecedented pace, PPL continues to evolve and adapt to meet challenges and embrace opportunities,” said PPL President and Chief Executive Officer Vincent Sorgi. “In 2025, we achieved our targeted earnings per share and dividend growth, completed $4.4 billion in infrastructure investments to improve service to our customers and exceeded our targeted annual O&M savings to help keep energy affordable.
“Across PPL, we also continued to advance our strategy to create the utilities of the future – utilities that are stronger, smarter, cleaner and more efficient. In fact, despite significantly heightened storm activity in all of our service territories, our companies delivered top-quartile or near-top-quartile reliability in 2025. This performance is a direct result of investments we’re making in our electricity and gas networks and Kentucky power plants,” said Sorgi.
As PPL invests in the future, it remains very focused on ensuring utility bills remain affordable – and not just the components of the bill the company controls. Sorgi said PPL is accomplishing this on a number of fronts. This includes enhancing low-income customer programs and continuing PPL’s strong focus on operational efficiency. It includes connecting large loads to transmission networks and developing new large-load tariffs to protect and ultimately lower transmission costs for other customers. It includes supporting legislation in Pennsylvania and advancing PPL’s joint venture with Blackstone Infrastructure to get new generation resources built in PJM, which should lower wholesale electricity costs to PPL Electric Utilities’ customers. In addition, it includes working to negotiate a new hold-harmless settlement in Rhode Island in parallel with Rhode Island Energy’s pending base rate proceeding.
“For every $1 of O&M we reduce, we can fund about $8 of capital investment without impacting the customer bill,” said Sorgi. “By steadily building on our cost-saving efforts each year since 2021, we have achieved annual run-rate O&M savings of $170 million in 2025, putting us almost a year ahead of schedule and very close to our 2026 goal of $175 million in annual run-rate O&M reductions compared to 2021. This O&M efficiency strategy enabled our utilities to go many years without requesting a base rate increase for our customers – ten years at PPL Electric Utilities, nearly five years at Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities and eight years at Rhode Island Energy. Moving forward, we will continue to mitigate bill increases as much as possible while we make critical investments in electric and gas network modernization, build new generation to meet demand growth in Kentucky, and advance our joint venture with Blackstone Infrastructure to meet growing data center demand in Pennsylvania.
“In short, this is an exciting and crucial time in our country and industry as we work to meet the significant power demands from data centers and new manufacturing in a manner that does not increase costs to our other customers. These issues are incredibly complicated, but they are also incredibly important to solve, and at PPL, we are absolutely committed to being part of the solution,” said Sorgi.
2025 Highlights
In delivering ongoing earnings of $1.81 per share, PPL achieved the midpoint of its 2025 ongoing earnings forecast, or a 7.1% increase over the midpoint of the company’s original 2024 ongoing-earnings- per-share target.
In completing $4.4 billion in planned capital investments, the company focused on strengthening the grid against more frequent and severe storms; speeding restoration and recovery when they occur; and advancing a safe, reliable and cleaner energy mix.
In achieving cumulative, annual O&M savings of $170 million in 2025 compared to the company’s 2021 baseline, the company increased efficiency primarily through continued investment in grid hardening and the deployment of smart grid technology, automation and data science.
2026 Earnings Guidance and Outlook
In conjunction with today’s earnings announcement, PPL provided a 2026 earnings forecast range of $1.90 to $1.98 per share. The midpoint, $1.94 per share, represents a 7.2% increase over the company’s 2025 actual ongoing earnings results of $1.81 per share.
PPL also extended its 6% to 8% annual EPS growth target through 2029. The company expects to achieve compound annual growth near the top end of its targeted range through at least 2029 off of 2025 actual ongoing earnings of $1.81 per share, with stronger growth beginning in 2027 and continuing through 2029.
In addition, the company updated its capital investment plan to $23 billion from 2026 through 2029, compared to the prior plan of $20 billion from 2025 to 2028. These investments are expected to result in approximately 10.3% average annual rate base growth through 2029. The company is targeting approximately $5.1 billion in infrastructure investments in 2026, including investments to construct generation in Kentucky, expand transmission networks to support new data centers, and further improve transmission and distribution safety and reliability in both the electricity and natural gas businesses across all of its service territories.
PPL’s updated plan does not include earnings contributions or capital investments from the company’s joint venture with Blackstone Infrastructure. Depending on the timing of signed energy services agreements and the generation mix selected by these hyperscalers, the joint venture could potentially deliver earnings to PPL in the back end of the plan period, with such earnings being upside to the updated plan announced today.
To support the significant capital needs over the updated business plan, PPL projects approximately $3 billion of equity needs from 2026 through 2029. Approximately $1 billion of these needs have already been executed through forward sales agreements during 2025, with the remaining $2 billion to be addressed over the plan period. The company continues to project a Funds from Operations (FFO)/Cash Flow from Operations (CFO) to debt ratio of 16% to 18% throughout its updated plan period.
Lastly, PPL announced a 4.6% increase in its quarterly common stock dividend, raising the dividend from $0.2725 per share to $0.2850 per share. As part of its updated business plan and increased capital investment program, the company now targets annual dividend growth of 4% to 6% to support reinvestment while continuing to deliver top-tier shareowner returns. The increased dividend will be payable April 1, 2026, to shareowners of record as of March 10, 2026.
- Announces 2025 reported earnings (GAAP) of $1.59 per share.
- Achieves earnings from ongoing operations of $1.81 per share – 7.1% growth over 2024.
- Provides 2026 earnings forecast range of $1.90 to $1.98 per share; midpoint of $1.94 per share represents a 7.2% increase over 2025 ongoing earnings.
- Extends annual EPS growth target of 6% to 8% through at least 2029; expects EPS compound annual growth rate through 2029 to be near the top end of targeted range off of 2025 results.
- Updates capital plan to $23 billion of projected infrastructure investments from 2026 through 2029, resulting in average annual rate base growth of ~ 10.3% over the period.
- Announces increase in quarterly common stock dividend to $0.2850 per share.
Lehigh Valley News Briefs 