Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec Acquires Shares of 401,650 Principal Financial Group, Inc. $PFG

Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec acquired a new stake in shares of Principal Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PFG) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 401,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,290,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Principal Financial Group in the second quarter valued at about $2,157,181,000. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Principal Financial Group by 9.6% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 12,370,852 shares of the company’s stock worth $982,617,000 after purchasing an additional 1,083,991 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Principal Financial Group by 3.2% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,886,509 shares of the company’s stock worth $350,187,000 after purchasing an additional 119,327 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Principal Financial Group by 23.2% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,376,797 shares of the company’s stock worth $279,970,000 after purchasing an additional 636,334 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Principal Financial Group in the fourth quarter worth about $273,276,000. Institutional investors own 75.08% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on PFG. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Principal Financial Group from $113.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Principal Financial Group from $102.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $121.00 target price on shares of Principal Financial Group in a research note on Monday, August 17th. Bank of America upped their target price on Principal Financial Group from $94.00 to $104.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Principal Financial Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $106.67.

Principal Financial Group Price Performance

PFG stock opened at $112.17 on Friday. Principal Financial Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $77.90 and a 1 year high of $116.61. The company has a market cap of $24.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.93, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.88. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $111.80 and a 200 day moving average of $101.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.28 and a quick ratio of 0.28.

Principal Financial Group (NASDAQ:PFG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 27th. The company reported $2.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.33 by $0.17. Principal Financial Group had a return on equity of 16.49% and a net margin of 9.93%.The business had revenue of $3.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.11 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.16 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Principal Financial Group, Inc. will post 9.62 EPS for the current year.

Principal Financial Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 3rd will be paid a $0.84 dividend. This represents a $3.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 3rd. This is a boost from Principal Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. Principal Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.59%.

Principal Financial Group Profile

Principal Financial Group (NASDAQ: PFG) is a global financial services company headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, that provides a range of retirement, investment and insurance solutions to individuals, employers and institutional clients. The firm’s business is organized around retirement services, asset management, and insurance products designed to help clients plan, invest for, and protect income over the long term.

Principal’s product and service offerings include retirement plan recordkeeping and administration for employer-sponsored plans, individual and group retirement annuities, life and disability insurance, employee benefits solutions, and wealth management services.