Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 1,535,324 Shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. $BEP

Key Points

• Principal Financial Group cut its stake in Brookfield Renewable Partners by 14.9% in the first quarter, selling 1,535,324 shares and ending with 8,769,824 shares valued at about $286.2 million.
• Analyst sentiment remains mostly positive: the stock carries a Moderate Buy consensus, with 11 analysts rating it Buy and an average price target of $38.00.
• Brookfield Renewable Partners recently reported Q1 EPS of -$0.40, missing expectations, but revenue of $1.51 billion slightly topped estimates. The company also paid a quarterly dividend of $0.392 per share, implying an annualized yield of 4.9%.

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its stake in Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. (NYSE:BEP - Free Report) TSE: BEP by 14.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,769,824 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 1,535,324 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 2.89% of Brookfield Renewable Partners worth $286,247,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BEP. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners by 7.8% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,223 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $264,000 after acquiring an additional 742 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners by 9.5% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 8,645 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $233,000 after purchasing an additional 750 shares during the period. Tacita Capital Inc increased its stake in shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Tacita Capital Inc now owns 119,101 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $3,220,000 after purchasing an additional 770 shares during the period. Kelleher Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in Brookfield Renewable Partners during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Finally, Osaic Holdings Inc. lifted its holdings in Brookfield Renewable Partners by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 23,468 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $599,000 after purchasing an additional 1,212 shares during the last quarter. 63.16% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BEP has been the topic of a number of research reports. TD upped their price objective on Brookfield Renewable Partners from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Scotiabank reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $42.00 target price (up from $36.00) on shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners in a report on Friday, May 29th. Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners from a "sell" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Sunday, May 10th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $40.00 price target (up from $39.00) on shares of Brookfield Renewable Partners in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Brookfield Renewable Partners has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $38.00.

Brookfield Renewable Partners Price Performance

Brookfield Renewable Partners stock opened at $32.15 on Wednesday. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $34.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $32.29. Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. has a one year low of $24.13 and a one year high of $38.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The firm has a market cap of $9.65 billion, a PE ratio of -103.71 and a beta of 1.10.

Brookfield Renewable Partners (NYSE:BEP - Get Free Report) TSE: BEP last released its earnings results on Saturday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported ($0.40) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.36) by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. Brookfield Renewable Partners had a net margin of 8.28% and a return on equity of 1.57%. As a group, research analysts expect that Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. will post -1.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brookfield Renewable Partners Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, May 29th were given a dividend of $0.392 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 29th. This represents a $1.57 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.9%. Brookfield Renewable Partners's dividend payout ratio is currently -506.45%.

About Brookfield Renewable Partners

Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. is a leading global owner, operator and developer of renewable power assets. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BEP, the partnership focuses on generating clean electricity from a diversified mix of hydroelectric, wind, solar and energy storage facilities. As part of the Brookfield Asset Management group, Brookfield Renewable leverages a long-term, asset-backed approach to investing in sustainable energy projects that support the transition to a low-carbon economy.

The company’s platform encompasses approximately 23,000 megawatts of installed capacity across four continents.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.