14,959 Shares in Principal Financial Group, Inc. $PFG Purchased by Jefferies Financial Group Inc.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Principal Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PFG) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 14,959 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,612,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PFG. DV Equities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Principal Financial Group in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Principal Financial Group in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Principal Financial Group in the first quarter worth approximately $27,000. Ancora Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Principal Financial Group in the second quarter worth $27,000. Finally, MBM Wealth Consultants LLC bought a new stake in shares of Principal Financial Group during the first quarter worth $28,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.08% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PFG has been the topic of a number of research reports. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Principal Financial Group from $94.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Principal Financial Group from $113.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Principal Financial Group from $106.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Citigroup downgraded Principal Financial Group from a “sell” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Principal Financial Group from $102.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $106.67.

Principal Financial Group Price Performance

NASDAQ PFG opened at $111.41 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $23.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.83, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.28 and a quick ratio of 0.28. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $111.84 and its 200 day moving average price is $102.02. Principal Financial Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $77.90 and a 1 year high of $116.61.

Principal Financial Group (NASDAQ:PFG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 27th. The company reported $2.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.33 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $3.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.11 billion. Principal Financial Group had a net margin of 9.93% and a return on equity of 16.49%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.16 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Principal Financial Group, Inc. will post 9.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Principal Financial Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.84 per share. This is a boost from Principal Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 3rd. This represents a $3.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. Principal Financial Group’s payout ratio is currently 46.59%.

Principal Financial Group Company Profile

Principal Financial Group (NASDAQ: PFG) is a global financial services company headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, that provides a range of retirement, investment and insurance solutions to individuals, employers and institutional clients. The firm’s business is organized around retirement services, asset management, and insurance products designed to help clients plan, invest for, and protect income over the long term.

Principal’s product and service offerings include retirement plan recordkeeping and administration for employer-sponsored plans, individual and group retirement annuities, life and disability insurance, employee benefits solutions, and wealth management services.