Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Position in Laureate Education, Inc. (NASDAQ:LAUR)

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its stake in Laureate Education, Inc. (NASDAQ:LAUR) by 13.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,325 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,612 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Laureate Education were worth $189,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Laureate Education by 0.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,185,347 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,918,000 after purchasing an additional 10,447 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Laureate Education by 2.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,116,661 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,768,000 after purchasing an additional 68,122 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB grew its position in Laureate Education by 225.8% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,513,300 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,746,000 after acquiring an additional 1,741,800 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Laureate Education by 3.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,145,552 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,638,000 after acquiring an additional 80,570 shares during the period. Finally, Cape Ann Asset Management Ltd purchased a new stake in Laureate Education during the third quarter valued at about $17,412,000. 96.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Laureate Education from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th.

Laureate Education Price Performance

LAUR stock opened at $19.42 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $19.17 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $17.75. Laureate Education, Inc. has a 12-month low of $13.26 and a 12-month high of $21.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company has a market cap of $2.93 billion, a PE ratio of 10.01 and a beta of 0.80.

Laureate Education (NASDAQ:LAUR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.20. Laureate Education had a return on equity of 32.35% and a net margin of 18.92%. The firm had revenue of $423.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $411.50 million. As a group, research analysts predict that Laureate Education, Inc. will post 1.51 EPS for the current year.

About Laureate Education

Laureate Education, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, offers higher education programs and services to students through a network of universities and higher education institutions. The company provides a range of undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the areas of business and management, medicine and health sciences, and engineering and information technology through campus-based, online, and hybrid programs.