Principal Financial Group Inc. Raises Holdings in Gates Industrial Corporation PLC (NYSE:GTES)

Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Gates Industrial Corporation PLC (NYSE:GTES - Free Report) by 2.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,128,867 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 29,763 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.44% of Gates Industrial worth $20,782,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GTES. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Gates Industrial by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,454,969 shares of the company's stock worth $50,499,000 after purchasing an additional 123,859 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in shares of Gates Industrial by 2,968.6% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,565 shares of the company's stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 1,514 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Gates Industrial during the fourth quarter valued at $529,000. Arizona State Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Gates Industrial by 16.3% during the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 70,048 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,441,000 after buying an additional 9,838 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Gates Industrial in the fourth quarter valued at about $42,080,000. 98.50% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on GTES. Citigroup cut their target price on Gates Industrial from $27.00 to $21.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Gates Industrial from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Saturday. Barclays boosted their price target on Gates Industrial from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Gates Industrial from $24.00 to $22.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Gates Industrial from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $23.56.

Gates Industrial Stock Performance

NYSE:GTES traded down $0.29 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $24.45. The company had a trading volume of 1,250,624 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,783,695. Gates Industrial Corporation PLC has a 1-year low of $14.70 and a 1-year high of $24.92. The firm has a market cap of $6.30 billion, a PE ratio of 29.82 and a beta of 1.22. The business's 50 day moving average price is $22.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $20.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 3.33 and a quick ratio of 2.35.

Gates Industrial (NYSE:GTES - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $847.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $823.56 million. Gates Industrial had a return on equity of 10.15% and a net margin of 6.39%. Gates Industrial's revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.31 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Gates Industrial Corporation PLC will post 1.36 EPS for the current year.

Gates Industrial Profile

Gates Industrial Corporation PLC designs and manufactures power transmission equipment. Its products serves harsh and hazardous industries such as agriculture, construction, manufacturing and energy, to everyday consumer applications such as printers, power washers, automatic doors and vacuum cleaners and virtually every form of transportation.