Principal Financial Group, Inc. $PFG Stock Purchased by Aberdeen Group plc

Aberdeen Group plc raised its holdings in Principal Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PFG) by 1,290.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,308,326 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,142,316 shares during the quarter. Aberdeen Group plc’s holdings in Principal Financial Group were worth $258,440,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Principal Financial Group during the second quarter worth $2,157,181,000. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Principal Financial Group by 0.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,264,856 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,106,346,000 after buying an additional 85,014 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in shares of Principal Financial Group by 5.0% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 8,819,452 shares of the company’s stock valued at $794,721,000 after buying an additional 420,319 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Principal Financial Group by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,886,509 shares of the company’s stock worth $350,187,000 after buying an additional 119,327 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in Principal Financial Group by 12.4% during the 2nd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,216,125 shares of the company’s stock worth $238,854,000 after buying an additional 244,550 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.08% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PFG has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Principal Financial Group from $112.00 to $109.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 28th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Principal Financial Group from $92.00 to $86.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 7th. Evercore set a $111.00 target price on shares of Principal Financial Group in a research report on Wednesday, October 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Principal Financial Group from $107.00 to $106.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Principal Financial Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research note on Monday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $107.75.

Principal Financial Group Trading Up 0.5%

PFG opened at $113.55 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $112.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $104.63. Principal Financial Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $80.00 and a fifty-two week high of $121.18. The company has a market cap of $24.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.28 and a quick ratio of 0.28.

Principal Financial Group (NASDAQ:PFG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The company reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.46 by ($0.24). The business had revenue of $4.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.31 billion. Principal Financial Group had a return on equity of 16.51% and a net margin of 11.89%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.32 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Principal Financial Group, Inc. will post 9.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Principal Financial Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.85 per share. This is a positive change from Principal Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.84. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 2nd. Principal Financial Group’s payout ratio is 37.33%.

About Principal Financial Group

Principal Financial Group, Inc. is a financial services company headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa. Founded in 1879 as Bankers Life Association, it later adopted the Principal name and expanded beyond its original insurance business. The company provides retirement and pension solutions, investment management, life and disability insurance, and employee benefits to businesses, individuals, and institutional clients. Its offerings include workplace retirement plans, group benefits, and investment products and services.