Principal Financial Group Inc. Boosts Holdings in Box, Inc. (NYSE:BOX)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Box, Inc. (NYSE:BOX - Free Report) by 2.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 801,576 shares of the software maker's stock after purchasing an additional 22,526 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.56% of BOX worth $24,737,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in BOX by 103.9% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,386,370 shares of the software maker's stock worth $107,009,000 after buying an additional 1,725,197 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of BOX in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,973,000. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of BOX in the 4th quarter worth approximately $24,234,000. Wells Fargo & Company MN lifted its stake in shares of BOX by 22.9% in the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 1,633,647 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $51,623,000 after purchasing an additional 304,755 shares during the period. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its position in shares of BOX by 219.4% during the fourth quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 420,907 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $13,301,000 after purchasing an additional 289,112 shares in the last quarter. 86.74% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on BOX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on BOX from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on shares of BOX from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of BOX from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Sunday, June 29th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed a "positive" rating on shares of BOX in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, UBS Group raised BOX from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $37.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $38.50.

BOX Price Performance

NYSE BOX traded down $0.82 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $32.39. The stock had a trading volume of 2,146,662 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,964,274. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $34.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.55. Box, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.96 and a 1 year high of $38.80. The stock has a market cap of $4.66 billion, a PE ratio of 25.11 and a beta of 0.90.

BOX (NYSE:BOX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 27th. The software maker reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.05. BOX had a negative return on equity of 20.17% and a net margin of 21.38%. The firm had revenue of $276.27 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $274.77 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.39 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Box, Inc. will post 0.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at BOX

In other BOX news, Director Dana L. Evan sold 7,590 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.51, for a total transaction of $254,340.90. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 115,725 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,877,944.75. The trade was a 6.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Olivia Nottebohm sold 2,013 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.60, for a total value of $69,649.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 534,086 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,479,375.60. This trade represents a 0.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 91,017 shares of company stock valued at $3,213,471. Company insiders own 3.90% of the company's stock.

BOX Profile

Box, Inc engages in the provision of an enterprise content platform that enables organizations to securely manage enterprise content while allowing easy, secure access and sharing of this content from anywhere, on any device. Its products include cloud content management, IT and admin controls, Box Governance, Box Zones, Box Relay, Box Shuttle, and Box KeySafe.