Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 130,408 Shares of Fidelity National Financial, Inc. $FNF

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (NYSE:FNF) by 3.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,533,508 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 130,408 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 1.31% of Fidelity National Financial worth $163,884,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in Fidelity National Financial in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,585,000. Sound Income Strategies LLC grew its position in shares of Fidelity National Financial by 342,784.1% during the 4th quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 150,869 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,976,000 after buying an additional 150,825 shares during the period. Oak Thistle LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fidelity National Financial in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,439,000. UBS Group AG increased its stake in shares of Fidelity National Financial by 8.9% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,664,396 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $90,859,000 after acquiring an additional 136,268 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PFA Pension Forsikringsaktieselskab acquired a new stake in shares of Fidelity National Financial in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $36,362,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stephens reduced their price objective on shares of Fidelity National Financial from $61.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Fidelity National Financial from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Fidelity National Financial from $50.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of Fidelity National Financial from $67.00 to $64.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Fidelity National Financial in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Fidelity National Financial presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.00.

Fidelity National Financial Trading Down 0.4%

NYSE:FNF opened at $49.86 on Wednesday. Fidelity National Financial, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $42.78 and a fifty-two week high of $61.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.25 and a quick ratio of 0.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.42 billion, a PE ratio of 18.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 0.96. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $48.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $50.28.

Fidelity National Financial (NYSE:FNF) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The financial services provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.09 by ($0.16). The business had revenue of $3.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.61 billion. Fidelity National Financial had a return on equity of 15.49% and a net margin of 5.10%.Fidelity National Financial’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.78 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Fidelity National Financial, Inc. will post 5.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fidelity National Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 16th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 16th. Fidelity National Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 75.91%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Peter T. Sadowski sold 69,196 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.70, for a total transaction of $3,162,257.20. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 5,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $260,581.40. This represents a 92.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 5.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Fidelity National Financial

Fidelity National Financial (NYSE: FNF) is a leading provider of title insurance and transaction services to the real estate and mortgage industries. The company underwrites title insurance policies that protect property owners and lenders against title defects, liens, and other encumbrances. Alongside its core title insurance operations, FNF offers escrow and closing services, e-recording solutions, and real estate data and analytics through a network of agents and underwriters.

FNF operates through two primary segments: Title Insurance and Specialty Insurance and Services.