Principal Financial Group Inc. Raises Holdings in Palomar Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLMR)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Palomar Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLMR) by 5.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 147,540 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 7,875 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.56% of Palomar worth $15,579,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Palomar by 3.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,097,702 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,919,000 after buying an additional 32,151 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Palomar by 3.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 600,092 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,822,000 after buying an additional 18,335 shares during the last quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP boosted its position in Palomar by 18.7% during the fourth quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 455,082 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,052,000 after purchasing an additional 71,806 shares in the last quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC boosted its position in Palomar by 1.9% during the third quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 449,973 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,599,000 after purchasing an additional 8,601 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP boosted its position in Palomar by 24.5% during the third quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 394,408 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,339,000 after purchasing an additional 77,552 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PLMR has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Palomar from $133.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Palomar in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Palomar from $136.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Palomar from $93.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price target on Palomar from $112.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Palomar presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $127.33.

Insider Activity at Palomar

In related news, CEO Mac Armstrong sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.04, for a total value of $721,280.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 419,388 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,213,739.52. This represents a 1.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO T Christopher Uchida sold 1,030 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.85, for a total value of $114,175.50. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 15,994 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,772,934.90. This represents a 6.05 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 38,485 shares of company stock valued at $4,098,195. 4.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Palomar Price Performance

Shares of Palomar stock opened at $121.61 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $109.33 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $102.41. Palomar Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $71.54 and a 12 month high of $128.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.15 and a beta of 0.38.

Palomar (NASDAQ:PLMR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.24 by $0.13. Palomar had a return on equity of 19.76% and a net margin of 21.23%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Palomar Holdings, Inc. will post 5.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Palomar

Palomar Holdings, Inc, a specialty insurance company, provides property and casualty insurance to residential and businesses in the United States. The company offers personal and commercial specialty property insurance products, including residential and commercial earthquake, fronting, commercial all risk, specialty homeowners, inland marine, Hawaii hurricane, and residential flood, as well as other products, such as assumed reinsurance.