Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Stake in NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 35,261,512 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock after selling 365,762 shares during the period. NVIDIA accounts for 2.6% of Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in NVIDIA were worth $4,735,268,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hoertkorn Richard Charles grew its holdings in NVIDIA by 2.0% in the third quarter. Hoertkorn Richard Charles now owns 3,490 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $424,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. lifted its stake in shares of NVIDIA by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. now owns 8,612 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $1,157,000 after buying an additional 71 shares in the last quarter. Smart Portfolios LLC lifted its stake in shares of NVIDIA by 2.7% in the third quarter. Smart Portfolios LLC now owns 2,805 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $341,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Palisade Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of NVIDIA by 0.5% in the third quarter. Palisade Asset Management LLC now owns 15,363 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $1,866,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Baker Boyer National Bank lifted its stake in shares of NVIDIA by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Baker Boyer National Bank now owns 2,403 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $323,000 after buying an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.27% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at NVIDIA

In other NVIDIA news, EVP Ajay K. Puri sold 36,462 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $151.10, for a total transaction of $5,509,408.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 3,902,888 shares in the company, valued at $589,726,376.80. This trade represents a 0.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Colette Kress sold 66,660 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.83, for a total transaction of $7,787,887.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 3,085,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $360,509,924.95. This trade represents a 2.11 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 179,109 shares of company stock valued at $22,117,015. Corporate insiders own 4.23% of the company’s stock.

NVIDIA Stock Performance

NVDA opened at $117.70 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.87 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.32, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a fifty day moving average of $126.92 and a 200 day moving average of $131.02. NVIDIA Co. has a fifty-two week low of $75.61 and a fifty-two week high of $153.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 3.64 and a current ratio of 4.10.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The computer hardware maker reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $39.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.16 billion. NVIDIA had a net margin of 55.69% and a return on equity of 114.83%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that NVIDIA Co. will post 2.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NVIDIA Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.01 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.03%. NVIDIA’s payout ratio is 1.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. HSBC dropped their target price on shares of NVIDIA from $195.00 to $185.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $175.00 target price on shares of NVIDIA in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $220.00 price objective on shares of NVIDIA in a research report on Wednesday. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and set a $190.00 price objective on shares of NVIDIA in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and set a $180.00 price objective on shares of NVIDIA in a research report on Wednesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $171.51.

NVIDIA Profile

NVIDIA Corporation provides graphics and compute and networking solutions in the United States, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, and internationally. The Graphics segment offers GeForce GPUs for gaming and PCs, the GeForce NOW game streaming service and related infrastructure, and solutions for gaming platforms; Quadro/NVIDIA RTX GPUs for enterprise workstation graphics; virtual GPU or vGPU software for cloud-based visual and virtual computing; automotive platforms for infotainment systems; and Omniverse software for building and operating metaverse and 3D internet applications.