Principal Financial Group Inc. Acquires 34,591 Shares of CPB Inc. $CPF

Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in CPB Inc. (NYSE:CPF) by 27.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 162,431 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 34,591 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.61% of CPB worth $5,191,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. HoldCo Asset Management LP grew its stake in shares of CPB by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. HoldCo Asset Management LP now owns 2,427,576 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $75,643,000 after buying an additional 146,547 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of CPB by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,079,266 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $64,790,000 after acquiring an additional 24,933 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in CPB by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,046,284 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $32,602,000 after acquiring an additional 12,206 shares during the period. Basswood Capital Management L.L.C. grew its position in CPB by 11.0% during the 2nd quarter. Basswood Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 885,753 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $24,828,000 after acquiring an additional 88,028 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in CPB by 15.9% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 299,652 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,337,000 after acquiring an additional 41,019 shares during the last quarter. 88.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CPF has been the subject of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on CPB from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of CPB from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Benchmark began coverage on shares of CPB in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $44.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of CPB from $39.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, CPB presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $39.33.

CPB Stock Performance

Shares of CPF stock opened at $39.69 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $36.89 and a 200 day moving average of $34.29. CPB Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.62 and a 52 week high of $40.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.72 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

CPB (NYSE:CPF) last announced its earnings results on Friday, July 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.02. CPB had a net margin of 22.52% and a return on equity of 14.20%. The firm had revenue of $77.45 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.69 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.67 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that CPB Inc. will post 3.17 earnings per share for the current year.

CPB Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 31st will be given a dividend of $0.30 per share. This is an increase from CPB’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 31st. CPB’s payout ratio is 38.46%.

CPB Profile

Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited (NYSE: CPF) is a Thailand‐based integrated agro‐industrial and food conglomerate. Headquartered in Bangkok, the company is a subsidiary of the Charoen Pokphand Group and has grown into one of the world’s leading producers of livestock feed, meat and seafood products. CPF’s businesses span animal feed milling, animal breeding and hatchery operations, meat and seafood processing, and the distribution of fresh, frozen and value‐added food products.

CPF’s product portfolio includes poultry, swine and aquaculture feed; fresh and frozen chicken and pork; shrimp and other seafood; as well as ready‐to‐eat and ready‐to‐cook food items.