St. Joe Company (The) $JOE Shares Purchased by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Key Points

• Principal Financial Group increased its stake in St. Joe by 17% in the first quarter, adding 32,457 shares to bring its holdings to 222,891 shares worth about $14 million.
• Insider selling continued, with major shareholder Bruce R. Berkowitz selling 140,400 shares in June; insiders have sold 1 million shares over the past three months.
• St. Joe reported first-quarter EPS of $0.24 on revenue of $99.04 million, while Weiss Ratings downgraded the stock from Buy to Hold.

Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in St. Joe Company (The) (NYSE:JOE - Free Report) by 17.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 222,891 shares of the financial services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 32,457 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.39% of St. Joe worth $13,998,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in shares of St. Joe by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 29,915 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,404,000 after purchasing an additional 1,384 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in St. Joe by 152.4% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 76,084 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $3,572,000 after buying an additional 45,939 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in St. Joe by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 21,459 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,008,000 after buying an additional 951 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in St. Joe by 29.4% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 87,606 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $4,113,000 after buying an additional 19,879 shares during the period. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in St. Joe by 45.8% during the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 26,218 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,231,000 after buying an additional 8,235 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.67% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other St. Joe news, major shareholder Bruce R. Berkowitz sold 140,400 shares of St. Joe stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.71, for a total value of $9,225,684.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 15,073,624 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $990,487,833.04. The trade was a 0.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 1,000,000 shares of company stock valued at $65,585,733 in the last three months. 0.35% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Weiss Ratings downgraded St. Joe from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a report on Friday, May 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold".

St. Joe Stock Performance

NYSE:JOE opened at $62.22 on Friday. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $63.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $65.70. St. Joe Company has a 1-year low of $46.37 and a 1-year high of $73.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 2.36 and a quick ratio of 2.36. The firm has a market cap of $3.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.07 and a beta of 1.29.

St. Joe (NYSE:JOE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The financial services provider reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter. St. Joe had a net margin of 21.61% and a return on equity of 14.59%. The company had revenue of $99.04 million during the quarter.

St. Joe Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 9th were issued a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 9th. St. Joe's dividend payout ratio is currently 32.99%.

St. Joe Company Profile

The St. Joe Company NYSE: JOE is a leading real estate development and asset management firm focused on Northwest Florida. Headquartered in Jacksonville, the company owns and manages approximately 171,000 acres of land across Bay, Gulf, Franklin and Walton counties. St. Joe's core businesses include residential community development, commercial real estate, and hospitality, with an emphasis on master-planned neighborhoods, office and retail campuses, resort hotels and mixed-use town centers.

Founded in 1936 as a paper manufacturing company, St.

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