Principal Financial Group Inc. Reduces Position in Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:PNFP)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:PNFP - Free Report) by 13.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 848,372 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 134,910 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 1.10% of Pinnacle Financial Partners worth $97,046,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Principal Securities Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Pinnacle Financial Partners by 12.7% during the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 808 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $92,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares during the last quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pinnacle Financial Partners by 101,563.6% during the fourth quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 22,366 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,558,000 after purchasing an additional 22,344 shares during the last quarter. Asset Planning Inc purchased a new position in shares of Pinnacle Financial Partners during the fourth quarter worth $212,000. Vicus Capital purchased a new position in shares of Pinnacle Financial Partners during the fourth quarter worth $204,000. Finally, Values First Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Pinnacle Financial Partners by 189.9% during the fourth quarter. Values First Advisors Inc. now owns 1,458 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $167,000 after purchasing an additional 955 shares during the last quarter. 87.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pinnacle Financial Partners

In other news, CFO Harold R. Carpenter sold 3,051 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.57, for a total value of $383,114.07. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 60,805 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,635,283.85. The trade was a 4.78 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director David B. Ingram sold 40,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.50, for a total transaction of $5,060,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 40,991 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,185,361.50. The trade was a 49.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 126,970 shares of company stock worth $15,922,061 in the last ninety days. 1.87% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PNFP has been the subject of several recent research reports. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Pinnacle Financial Partners in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $133.00 target price for the company. Hovde Group cut shares of Pinnacle Financial Partners from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and set a $135.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, November 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a "market perform" rating and issued a $135.00 price objective (up previously from $115.00) on shares of Pinnacle Financial Partners in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Barclays raised shares of Pinnacle Financial Partners from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $120.00 to $135.00 in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $142.00 price objective on shares of Pinnacle Financial Partners in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $125.18.

Pinnacle Financial Partners Price Performance

PNFP traded down $4.07 on Friday, reaching $114.21. 304,709 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 431,933. The stock has a market cap of $8.82 billion, a PE ratio of 19.10 and a beta of 1.09. Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. has a twelve month low of $73.62 and a twelve month high of $131.91. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $118.68 and its 200-day moving average price is $109.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.90.

Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ:PNFP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The financial services provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.80 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $475.34 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $470.33 million. Pinnacle Financial Partners had a net margin of 15.48% and a return on equity of 9.04%. Pinnacle Financial Partners's quarterly revenue was up 19.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.68 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. will post 7.85 EPS for the current year.

Pinnacle Financial Partners Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 7th will be issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.84%. This is a positive change from Pinnacle Financial Partners's previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. Pinnacle Financial Partners's payout ratio is presently 16.05%.

Pinnacle Financial Partners Company Profile

Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as the bank holding company for Pinnacle Bank that provides various banking products and services to individuals, businesses, and professional entities in the United States. The company accepts various deposits, including savings, noninterest-bearing and interest-bearing checking, money market, and certificate of deposit accounts; and provides treasury management services, which includes online wire origination, enhanced ACH origination services, positive pay, zero balance and sweep accounts, automated bill pay services, electronic receivables processing, lockbox processing, and merchant card acceptance services.