Principal Financial Group Inc. Raises Position in Geopark Ltd (NYSE:GPRK)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Geopark Ltd (NYSE:GPRK) by 4.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 359,919 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,999 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.70% of Geopark worth $2,908,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GPRK. Investment Counsel Co. of Nevada purchased a new stake in shares of Geopark during the 4th quarter valued at $48,000. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Geopark in the 1st quarter worth $99,000. Fox Run Management L.L.C. raised its stake in Geopark by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Fox Run Management L.L.C. now owns 13,855 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $128,000 after acquiring an additional 2,009 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in Geopark by 50.7% in the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 15,370 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $142,000 after acquiring an additional 5,171 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp purchased a new position in Geopark in the 4th quarter worth $145,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Wall Street Zen lowered Geopark from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, April 27th.

Geopark Stock Performance

Shares of GPRK stock opened at $6.65 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $340.79 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.03, a current ratio of 1.96 and a quick ratio of 1.92. The business has a fifty day moving average of $6.95 and a 200 day moving average of $7.83. Geopark Ltd has a 1 year low of $5.66 and a 1 year high of $11.72.

Geopark (NYSE:GPRK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The oil and gas company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $137.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $126.00 million. Geopark had a net margin of 12.56% and a return on equity of 42.96%. As a group, research analysts expect that Geopark Ltd will post 1.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Geopark Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 5th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.147 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 22nd. This represents a $0.59 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.84%. Geopark’s payout ratio is currently 38.41%.

Geopark Profile

GeoPark Limited operates as an oil and natural gas exploration and production company primarily in Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, and other Latin American countries. It engages in the exploration, development, and production of oil and gas reserves. The company was formerly known as GeoPark Holdings Limited and changed its name to GeoPark Limited in July 2013.