Strs Ohio Purchases Shares of 24,003 Principal Financial Group, Inc. $PFG

Key Points

• Strs Ohio purchased 24,003 shares in Principal Financial Group for approximately $2,025,000 during the 1st quarter, indicating institutional interest in the stock.
• Analysts have set varying price targets for Principal Financial Group, with a current average target price of $86.90 and an average rating of "Reduce."
• Principal Financial Group recently disclosed an increase in its quarterly dividend from $0.76 to $0.78, representing a 3.8% yield.

Strs Ohio acquired a new position in shares of Principal Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:PFG - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 24,003 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,025,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PFG. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Principal Financial Group by 802.2% during the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,707,534 shares of the company's stock worth $312,805,000 after purchasing an additional 3,296,608 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in Principal Financial Group by 114.2% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,613,143 shares of the company's stock worth $220,471,000 after purchasing an additional 1,393,008 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Principal Financial Group during the first quarter worth approximately $47,986,000. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Principal Financial Group by 443.6% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 645,431 shares of the company's stock worth $53,597,000 after purchasing an additional 526,701 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Principal Financial Group by 11,781.7% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 478,715 shares of the company's stock worth $40,389,000 after purchasing an additional 474,686 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.08% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PFG. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on Principal Financial Group from $90.00 to $88.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Principal Financial Group from $88.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Principal Financial Group from $92.00 to $101.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Principal Financial Group from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Principal Financial Group from $76.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Monday, July 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and an average price target of $86.90.

Principal Financial Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PFG traded down $0.07 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $81.71. 3,057,345 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,391,685. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.29. The company has a market cap of $18.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.23, a PEG ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.03. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $79.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $78.84. Principal Financial Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $68.39 and a twelve month high of $91.97.

Principal Financial Group (NYSE:PFG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 28th. The company reported $2.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.97 by $0.19. Principal Financial Group had a net margin of 9.74% and a return on equity of 14.68%. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.63 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Principal Financial Group, Inc. will post 8.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Principal Financial Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be paid a $0.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. This is a boost from Principal Financial Group's previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. Principal Financial Group's payout ratio is 62.78%.

Principal Financial Group Company Profile

Principal Financial Group, Inc provides retirement, asset management, and insurance products and services to businesses, individuals, and institutional clients worldwide. The company operates through Retirement and Income Solutions, Principal Asset Management, and Benefits and Protection segments. The Retirement and Income Solutions segment provides retirement, and related financial products and services.