Principal Financial Group Inc. Has $35.81 Million Stake in Trimble Inc. $TRMB

Principal Financial Group Inc. cut its position in shares of Trimble Inc. (NASDAQ:TRMB) by 27.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 438,593 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 167,334 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Trimble were worth $35,811,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in shares of Trimble by 30.9% in the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 96,052 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $7,843,000 after acquiring an additional 22,650 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its holdings in Trimble by 31.5% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 146,283 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $11,944,000 after purchasing an additional 35,015 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its stake in Trimble by 123.4% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 237,294 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $19,375,000 after buying an additional 131,056 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank grew its position in shares of Trimble by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 744,000 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $56,529,000 after buying an additional 55,300 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners increased its stake in shares of Trimble by 14.4% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,170,179 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $318,285,000 after acquiring an additional 525,214 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.21% of the company’s stock.

Trimble Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of TRMB stock opened at $63.98 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 1.00. The company has a market capitalization of $15.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.82, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.59. Trimble Inc. has a 52-week low of $52.91 and a 52-week high of $87.50. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $77.19 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $79.46.

Trimble (NASDAQ:TRMB) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $901.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $870.30 million. Trimble had a return on equity of 10.73% and a net margin of 9.93%.The company’s revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.83 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Trimble Inc. will post 2.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Trimble announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Friday, December 5th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the scientific and technical instruments company to purchase up to 5.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Trimble news, Director James Calvin Dalton sold 616 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.99, for a total value of $50,505.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 13,193 shares in the company, valued at $1,081,694.07. This represents a 4.46% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Phillip Sawarynski sold 2,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.45, for a total transaction of $181,012.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 25,684 shares in the company, valued at $2,066,277.80. This trade represents a 8.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 25,366 shares of company stock valued at $2,044,793. Insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently issued reports on TRMB shares. Zacks Research lowered shares of Trimble from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 1st. KeyCorp raised Trimble from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $99.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on Trimble in a report on Thursday, November 13th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $94.00 price target on the stock. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $97.00 price objective on shares of Trimble in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Trimble in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Trimble currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $96.78.

Trimble Company Profile

Trimble Inc (NASDAQ: TRMB) is a technology company that develops hardware, software and services to improve the productivity and connectivity of customers across the construction, agriculture, geospatial, transportation and logistics, and natural resources sectors. The company’s offerings center on advanced positioning technologies — including GNSS/GPS receivers, inertial sensors and laser scanning — integrated with application-specific software and cloud services to enable precise measurement, modeling, machine control and workflow automation for field and office operations.

Trimble’s product portfolio spans surveying and geospatial instruments (total stations, mobile mapping and terrestrial laser scanners), construction solutions (machine control systems, site positioning and estimating), agriculture systems (auto-steer, guidance and application-control platforms), and fleet and transportation telematics.