Ameritas Advisory Services LLC Buys Shares of 1,697 Principal Financial Group, Inc. $PFG

Ameritas Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in Principal Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:PFG) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 1,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $135,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Principal Financial Group by 802.2% during the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,707,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $312,805,000 after acquiring an additional 3,296,608 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Principal Financial Group by 114.2% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,613,143 shares of the company’s stock valued at $220,471,000 after acquiring an additional 1,393,008 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Principal Financial Group by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,468,728 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,917,000 after acquiring an additional 20,221 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada raised its position in shares of Principal Financial Group by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,080,097 shares of the company’s stock valued at $91,128,000 after acquiring an additional 17,969 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd raised its position in shares of Principal Financial Group by 34.2% during the 1st quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 893,246 shares of the company’s stock valued at $75,363,000 after acquiring an additional 227,836 shares in the last quarter. 75.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Principal Financial Group from $72.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Principal Financial Group from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Principal Financial Group from $92.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Principal Financial Group from $92.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Principal Financial Group from $85.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $88.60.

Principal Financial Group Price Performance

Shares of PFG opened at $82.69 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $18.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.38, a PEG ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.03. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $80.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $78.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.29 and a quick ratio of 0.30. Principal Financial Group, Inc. has a 12 month low of $68.39 and a 12 month high of $91.97.

Principal Financial Group (NYSE:PFG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 28th. The company reported $2.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.97 by $0.19. Principal Financial Group had a return on equity of 14.68% and a net margin of 9.74%.During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.63 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Principal Financial Group, Inc. will post 8.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Principal Financial Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th were paid a $0.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 4th. This is a positive change from Principal Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. Principal Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 62.78%.

Principal Financial Group 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.