Principal Financial Group Inc. Increases Stake in Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 279,479 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,510 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.54% of Korn Ferry worth $18,851,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in KFY. KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of Korn Ferry by 68.5% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,542 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $171,000 after acquiring an additional 1,033 shares in the last quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA bought a new stake in shares of Korn Ferry in the 3rd quarter worth $203,000. MML Investors Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Korn Ferry in the third quarter worth $209,000. Cim Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Korn Ferry during the third quarter valued at $209,000. Finally, Highland Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Korn Ferry during the fourth quarter valued at $201,000. Institutional investors own 98.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Korn Ferry from $78.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Korn Ferry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Korn Ferry has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.00.

Insider Activity at Korn Ferry

In related news, CEO Mark Arian sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.24, for a total value of $1,444,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 68,869 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,975,096.56. This represents a 22.51 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 1.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Korn Ferry Stock Up 1.1 %

KFY stock opened at $65.10 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $3.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.91 and a beta of 1.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 2.07 and a current ratio of 2.07. The business’s 50-day moving average is $68.11 and its two-hundred day moving average is $71.12. Korn Ferry has a fifty-two week low of $59.12 and a fifty-two week high of $80.64.

Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The business services provider reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.21. The firm had revenue of $682.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $675.35 million. Korn Ferry had a net margin of 9.03% and a return on equity of 14.27%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.97 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Korn Ferry will post 4.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Korn Ferry Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Friday, December 20th were issued a $0.37 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 20th. This represents a $1.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.27%. Korn Ferry’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.62%.

Korn Ferry Company Profile

Korn Ferry, together with its subsidiaries, provides organizational consulting services worldwide. It operates through four segments: Consulting, Digital, Executive Search, and Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) & Professional Search. The company provides executive search services to recruit board level, chief executive, other senior executive, and general management talent of organizations.