Principal Financial Group Inc. Raises Stock Position in Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:NCLH)

Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:NCLH) by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 514,087 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 30,182 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.12% of Norwegian Cruise Line worth $10,544,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NCLH. Raymond James & Associates grew its stake in shares of Norwegian Cruise Line by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 92,813 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,744,000 after purchasing an additional 1,089 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in Norwegian Cruise Line by 680.4% during the second quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 168,606 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,168,000 after buying an additional 147,001 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its holdings in Norwegian Cruise Line by 9.8% in the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 97,421 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,831,000 after buying an additional 8,712 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. raised its position in shares of Norwegian Cruise Line by 24.5% in the second quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 15,319 shares of the company’s stock worth $288,000 after acquiring an additional 3,017 shares during the period. Finally, Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in shares of Norwegian Cruise Line by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 13,365 shares of the company’s stock worth $251,000 after acquiring an additional 705 shares in the last quarter. 69.58% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Norwegian Cruise Line

In other Norwegian Cruise Line news, CFO Mark Kempa sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.86, for a total transaction of $417,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 253,386 shares in the company, valued at $7,059,333.96. This represents a 5.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Andrea Demarco sold 29,000 shares of Norwegian Cruise Line stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.76, for a total value of $805,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 97,304 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,701,159.04. The trade was a 22.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 82,344 shares of company stock valued at $2,269,731 over the last 90 days. 0.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NCLH has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Norwegian Cruise Line from $21.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Norwegian Cruise Line from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Norwegian Cruise Line from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Norwegian Cruise Line from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $29.00 to $35.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Norwegian Cruise Line from $19.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $29.27.

Norwegian Cruise Line Price Performance

Shares of NCLH stock opened at $25.75 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.35, a current ratio of 0.20 and a quick ratio of 0.17. The company has a market capitalization of $11.32 billion, a PE ratio of 23.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.30 and a beta of 2.65. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $26.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $21.33. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. has a 12 month low of $14.69 and a 12 month high of $28.64.

Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE:NCLH) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.99 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.05. Norwegian Cruise Line had a return on equity of 99.31% and a net margin of 5.87%. The firm had revenue of $2.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.71 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. will post 1.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Norwegian Cruise Line Company Profile

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a cruise company in North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company operates through the Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, and Regent Seven Seas Cruises brands. It offers itineraries ranging from three days to a 180-days calling on various ports, including Scandinavia, Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Greek Isles, Alaska, Canada and New England, Hawaii, Asia, Tahiti and the South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand, Africa, India, South America, the Panama Canal, and the Caribbean.