Principal Financial Group Inc. Lowers Position in Nutanix (NASDAQ:NTNX)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in Nutanix (NASDAQ:NTNX) by 8.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,147 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 2,007 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Nutanix were worth $1,476,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of NTNX. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Nutanix by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,636,598 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,568,447,000 after purchasing an additional 146,854 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its position in Nutanix by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 4,418,900 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $270,348,000 after acquiring an additional 268,400 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Nutanix by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,311,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $263,275,000 after acquiring an additional 163,874 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in Nutanix by 9.3% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,498,768 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $214,055,000 after acquiring an additional 297,754 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Nutanix during the fourth quarter worth about $195,758,000. 85.25% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Nutanix Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTNX opened at $75.55 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $76.39 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $70.84. Nutanix has a one year low of $43.35 and a one year high of $83.36. The company has a market capitalization of $20.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 154.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.98 and a beta of 0.67.

Nutanix (NASDAQ:NTNX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 4th. The technology company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.04. Nutanix had a negative return on equity of 21.32% and a net margin of 0.97%. The business had revenue of $638.98 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $626.12 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.28 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 21.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Nutanix will post 0.31 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on NTNX. KeyCorp started coverage on Nutanix in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $95.00 price objective for the company. Wall Street Zen lowered Nutanix from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 30th. Raymond James Financial lowered Nutanix from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $90.00 target price (up from $75.00) on shares of Nutanix in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $92.00 price objective on shares of Nutanix in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Nutanix currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $91.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Rajiv Ramaswami sold 1,925 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $144,375.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 518,561 shares in the company, valued at $38,892,075. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Groen Max Pieter De sold 5,480,467 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.81, for a total value of $420,954,670.27. Following the sale, the director owned 5,480,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $420,954,747.08. This trade represents a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 5,552,549 shares of company stock valued at $426,621,281. 6.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Nutanix Profile

Nutanix, Inc engages in the provision of a cloud platform leveraging web-scale engineering and consumer-grade design. It operates through the following geographic segments: United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, and Other Americas. The firm also provides software solutions and cloud services to customers’ enterprise infrastructure.