Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Stake in Royal Bank Of Canada $RY

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its stake in Royal Bank Of Canada (NYSE:RY) (TSE:RY) by 84.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 29,300 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Royal Bank Of Canada were worth $902,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Royal Bank Of Canada by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,628,463 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $11,529,165,000 after purchasing an additional 1,290,142 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd grew its holdings in Royal Bank Of Canada by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 23,258,871 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,965,133,000 after purchasing an additional 255,465 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Royal Bank Of Canada in the fourth quarter valued at $3,472,382,000. Bank of Nova Scotia increased its position in shares of Royal Bank Of Canada by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 15,233,532 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,596,904,000 after buying an additional 238,589 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Royal Bank Of Canada by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,741,480 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,389,773,000 after buying an additional 882,253 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 45.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Royal Bank Of Canada from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Royal Bank Of Canada in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Raymond James Financial downgraded Royal Bank Of Canada from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Scotiabank reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Royal Bank Of Canada in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Finally, TD Securities reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Royal Bank Of Canada in a report on Friday, May 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $225.00.

Royal Bank Of Canada Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:RY opened at $209.44 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The firm has a market cap of $290.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.82, a PEG ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 0.80. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $203.19 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $182.18. Royal Bank Of Canada has a 12-month low of $127.38 and a 12-month high of $218.57.

Royal Bank Of Canada (NYSE:RY) (TSE:RY) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 28th. The financial services provider reported $2.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.03. Royal Bank Of Canada had a net margin of 15.92% and a return on equity of 17.68%. The firm had revenue of $12.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.74 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.12 earnings per share. Royal Bank Of Canada’s revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Royal Bank Of Canada will post 11.41 EPS for the current year.

Royal Bank Of Canada Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 27th will be paid a $1.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 27th. This represents a $7.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. This is a boost from Royal Bank Of Canada’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.64. Royal Bank Of Canada’s payout ratio is 44.56%.

About Royal Bank Of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE: RY) is a diversified financial services company and one of Canada’s largest banks. Founded in 1864 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the firm is now headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. It provides a broad range of banking and financial services to individuals, businesses, and institutional clients through a network of branches, digital platforms and international offices.

RBC operates across several principal business segments including personal and commercial banking, wealth management, insurance, investor and treasury services, capital markets, and global asset management.