Principal Financial Group Inc. Raises Holdings in Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras $PBR

Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras (NYSE:PBR) by 32.4% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 182,727 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after purchasing an additional 44,733 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras were worth $3,792,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras by 51.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 30,637,308 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $363,052,000 after buying an additional 10,425,563 shares in the last quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP raised its holdings in Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP now owns 18,975,177 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $224,856,000 after acquiring an additional 166,472 shares in the last quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD raised its holdings in Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras by 14.1% in the fourth quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD now owns 12,655,094 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $149,963,000 after acquiring an additional 1,562,473 shares in the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its stake in Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 5,335,330 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $63,224,000 after acquiring an additional 462,889 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Perpetual Ltd grew its holdings in Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 3,313,257 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $39,262,000 after acquiring an additional 18,100 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on PBR. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Zacks Research lowered Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $18.70 to $24.80 in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $19.28.

Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:PBR opened at $18.61 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $17.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.88. Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras has a one year low of $11.43 and a one year high of $22.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $119.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.04, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.33.

Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras (NYSE:PBR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 31st. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $23.54 billion for the quarter. Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras had a return on equity of 23.65% and a net margin of 21.67%. On average, analysts predict that Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras will post 4.28 EPS for the current year.

Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a special dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.1426 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 3rd. Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.04%.

About Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras

Petróleo Brasileiro SA – Petrobras is a Brazilian, state-controlled integrated oil and gas company headquartered in Rio de Janeiro. Founded in 1953, Petrobras is principally engaged in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas, and operates across the full value chain from upstream activities through refining, transportation and downstream marketing of petroleum products. The company is a major player in Brazil’s energy sector and is a listed public company with global capital market presence.

Petrobras’s core activities include deepwater and ultra-deepwater exploration and production, where it has been a pioneer in developing pre-salt reserves off Brazil’s coast.