Principal Financial Group Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in Stantec Inc. (NYSE:STN)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in Stantec Inc. (NYSE:STN – Get Rating) (TSE:STN) by 7.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 501,950 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 41,250 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.45% of Stantec worth $24,035,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. UBS Group AG grew its position in Stantec by 28.7% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 123,946 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,942,000 after buying an additional 27,650 shares during the last quarter. Forge First Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Stantec in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,827,000. Swiss National Bank grew its holdings in shares of Stantec by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 268,670 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $12,871,000 after purchasing an additional 2,900 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its holdings in shares of Stantec by 66.3% during the 4th quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 213,598 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $12,563,000 after purchasing an additional 85,120 shares during the period. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC lifted its position in Stantec by 52.5% during the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 2,879 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $138,000 after acquiring an additional 991 shares in the last quarter. 60.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on STN. Atb Cap Markets lowered Stantec from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 11th. Royal Bank of Canada raised Stantec from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 23rd. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Stantec in a report on Thursday. They issued a “strong-buy” rating for the company. Finally, Raymond James lowered Stantec from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Stantec has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $76.40.

Stantec Price Performance

Stantec stock opened at $58.79 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a current ratio of 1.48. The firm has a market cap of $6.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.30 and a beta of 0.90. The business’s fifty day moving average is $58.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $53.80. Stantec Inc. has a 52 week low of $41.32 and a 52 week high of $62.31.

Stantec (NYSE:STN – Get Rating) (TSE:STN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 22nd. The business services provider reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.07. Stantec had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 4.52%. The firm had revenue of $832.68 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $839.12 million. Equities research analysts forecast that Stantec Inc. will post 2.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Stantec Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 30th will be issued a $0.144 dividend. This represents a $0.58 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 29th. Stantec’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.32%.

About Stantec

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Stantec, Inc engages in the provision of knowledge-based solutions through value-added professional consulting services in engineering, architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, surveying, environmental sciences, project management, and project economics. It operates through the following geographical segments: Canada, United States, and Global.