Principal Financial Group (NYSE:PFG) Issues Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.24 EPS

Principal Financial Group (NYSE:PFG) issued its earnings results on Thursday. The company reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.87 by ($0.24), Briefing.com reports. Principal Financial Group had a net margin of 8.05% and a return on equity of 14.95%. The firm had revenue of $4.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.53 EPS.

Principal Financial Group Stock Down 3.4 %

Shares of NYSE PFG opened at $81.53 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.29 and a current ratio of 0.29. The firm has a market cap of $19.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.36, a PEG ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.21. Principal Financial Group has a 1 year low of $66.21 and a 1 year high of $88.26. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $81.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $81.06.

Principal Financial Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 5th will be given a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.53%. This is a positive change from Principal Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Principal Financial Group’s payout ratio is presently 54.20%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on PFG. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Principal Financial Group from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Raymond James upgraded Principal Financial Group from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $99.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Principal Financial Group from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $88.00 to $96.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Principal Financial Group from $81.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Principal Financial Group from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $85.42.

About Principal Financial Group

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.