Principal Financial Group Inc. Increases Stake in Sezzle Inc. (NASDAQ:SEZL)

Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Sezzle Inc. (NASDAQ:SEZL) by 550.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 23,346 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,758 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.07% of Sezzle worth $815,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Sezzle during the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in Sezzle by 3,575.0% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 147 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 143 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its holdings in Sezzle by 94.7% in the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 407 shares of the company’s stock valued at $104,000 after buying an additional 198 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in Sezzle in the 4th quarter valued at about $128,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets purchased a new stake in Sezzle in the 4th quarter valued at about $136,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 2.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on SEZL shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded Sezzle from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Sezzle from $168.00 to $202.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd.

Sezzle Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of SEZL stock opened at $140.59 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $132.88 and its 200 day moving average price is $74.43. Sezzle Inc. has a 1-year low of $11.67 and a 1-year high of $186.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.68 billion, a PE ratio of 47.50 and a beta of 9.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 2.62 and a quick ratio of 2.62.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Karen Hartje sold 311,196 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.83, for a total transaction of $22,353,208.68. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 154,266 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,080,926.78. This trade represents a 66.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Amin Sabzivand sold 18,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $157.31, for a total value of $2,831,580.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 243,303 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,273,994.93. The trade was a 6.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 498,092 shares of company stock worth $43,127,736 over the last 90 days. 49.49% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Sezzle Company Profile

Sezzle Inc operates as a technology-enabled payments company primarily in the United States and Canada. The company provides payment solution in-store and at online retail stores; and through proprietary payments solution that connects consumers with merchants. It also offers Sezzle Platform that provides a payments solution for consumers that extends credit at the point-of-sale allowing consumers to purchase and receive the ordered merchandise at the time of sale while paying in installments over time; Pay-in-Four, which allows consumers to pay a fourth of the purchase price up front and then another fourth of the purchase price every two weeks thereafter over a total of six weeks; Pay-in-Full that allows consumers to pay for the full value of their order up-front through the Sezzle Platform without the extension of credit; and Pay-in-Two and other alternative installment options, which allow consumer to pay half of the value of their order up-front and the second half in two weeks.