Principal Financial Group Inc. Acquires 50,574 Shares of Zoom Communications, Inc. $ZM

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Zoom Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZM) by 384.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 63,736 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 50,574 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Zoom Communications were worth $5,124,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Zoom Communications in the fourth quarter worth about $509,788,000. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in Zoom Communications by 43.9% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 12,195,243 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,052,328,000 after purchasing an additional 3,718,186 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP acquired a new position in Zoom Communications during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $86,709,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Zoom Communications by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,967,224 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,327,002,000 after purchasing an additional 1,029,623 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Zoom Communications by 46.2% in the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,645,846 shares of the company’s stock valued at $218,282,000 after purchasing an additional 836,594 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 66.54% of the company’s stock.

Zoom Communications Price Performance

NASDAQ:ZM opened at $91.48 on Wednesday. Zoom Communications, Inc. has a one year low of $69.15 and a one year high of $114.74. The company has a market cap of $26.82 billion, a PE ratio of 13.43, a P/E/G ratio of 4.89 and a beta of 1.01. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $93.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $89.08.

Zoom Communications (NASDAQ:ZM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 21st. The company reported $1.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.42 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $1.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.22 billion. Zoom Communications had a net margin of 41.99% and a return on equity of 11.87%. The company’s revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.43 EPS. Zoom Communications has set its FY 2027 guidance at 5.960-6.000 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 1.450-1.470 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Zoom Communications, Inc. will post 4.21 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ZM. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Zoom Communications from an “underweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Zoom Communications from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. BTIG Research raised their price objective on Zoom Communications from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Zoom Communications from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Benchmark upped their target price on Zoom Communications from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Fifteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Zoom Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $109.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Santiago Subotovsky sold 2,637 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total value of $237,725.55. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 138,554 shares in the company, valued at $12,490,643.10. This represents a 1.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Michelle Chang sold 8,489 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.80, for a total value of $770,801.20. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 35,452 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,219,041.60. This represents a 19.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold a total of 48,517 shares of company stock valued at $5,061,783 over the last 90 days. 8.83% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Zoom Communications Profile

Zoom Video Communications, Inc (commonly referred to as Zoom) is a provider of cloud-based communications and collaboration solutions. The company’s platform supports video conferencing, voice calling, instant messaging, webinars and large-scale virtual events, and meeting room systems, marketed to businesses, educational institutions, government organizations and individual users. Zoom’s product lineup includes Zoom Meetings, Zoom Phone, Zoom Rooms, Zoom Video Webinars and Zoom Chat, and the company offers integrations and extensions through a developer marketplace and third-party apps.

Founded in 2011 by Eric S.