Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Stake in Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its stake in Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI) by 6.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 237,400 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 15,789 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.52% of Itron worth $23,493,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new position in shares of Itron in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Itron by 85.6% in the 2nd quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 271 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the period. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Itron by 61.5% in the 1st quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 344 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 131 shares during the period. C M Bidwell & Associates Ltd. purchased a new stake in Itron during the fourth quarter worth approximately $76,000. Finally, BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S acquired a new position in Itron in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $81,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on ITRI shares. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Itron from $110.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Guggenheim raised Itron from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, July 11th. StockNews.com downgraded Itron from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 28th. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $125.00 price target on shares of Itron in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price target on Itron from $115.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 20th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $117.20.

Itron Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ITRI opened at $102.22 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 3.16, a quick ratio of 2.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98. Itron, Inc. has a twelve month low of $56.11 and a twelve month high of $113.07. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $100.52 and a two-hundred day moving average of $98.01. The stock has a market cap of $4.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.37, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.45.

Itron (NASDAQ:ITRI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.25. Itron had a return on equity of 16.42% and a net margin of 7.98%. The business had revenue of $609.07 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $599.25 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.65 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Itron, Inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Itron

In other news, CEO Thomas Deitrich sold 887 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.15, for a total transaction of $90,607.05. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 205,276 shares in the company, valued at $20,968,943.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Itron news, CEO Thomas Deitrich sold 887 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.15, for a total value of $90,607.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 205,276 shares in the company, valued at $20,968,943.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Donald L. Reeves III sold 4,210 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.00, for a total value of $425,210.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 16,269 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,643,169. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,776 shares of company stock worth $584,721 over the last 90 days. 1.45% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Itron Profile

Itron, Inc, a technology, solutions, and service company, provides end-to-end solutions that help manage energy, water, and smart city operations worldwide. It operates in three segments: Device Solutions, Networked Solutions, and Outcomes. The Device Solutions segment offers hardware products that are used for measurement, control, or sensing, such as standard gas, electricity, water, and communicating meters, as well as heat and allocation products.