Principal Financial Group Inc. Increases Stake in WisdomTree, Inc. $WT

Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in WisdomTree, Inc. (NYSE:WT) by 48.6% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 854,509 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 279,296 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in WisdomTree were worth $11,878,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of WT. First Horizon Corp acquired a new position in WisdomTree during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its position in shares of WisdomTree by 105.7% in the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,011 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 1,547 shares during the period. Traub Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in WisdomTree in the 2nd quarter worth $58,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in WisdomTree during the 3rd quarter worth about $118,000. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC purchased a new stake in WisdomTree during the 2nd quarter valued at about $128,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.64% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other WisdomTree news, insider David M. Yates sold 6,820 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.12, for a total transaction of $75,838.40. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 152,123 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,691,607.76. This trade represents a 4.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO R Jarrett Lilien sold 12,500 shares of WisdomTree stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.01, for a total transaction of $137,625.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 998,638 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,995,004.38. This trade represents a 1.24% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 9.30% of the company’s stock.

WisdomTree Price Performance

Shares of WisdomTree stock opened at $16.05 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $2.26 billion, a PE ratio of 21.39 and a beta of 1.09. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $13.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $13.19. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.94. WisdomTree, Inc. has a twelve month low of $7.47 and a twelve month high of $17.09.

WisdomTree (NYSE:WT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 30th. The company reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $147.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $142.78 million. WisdomTree had a return on equity of 30.24% and a net margin of 22.10%.WisdomTree’s quarterly revenue was up 33.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.17 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that WisdomTree, Inc. will post 0.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

WisdomTree Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 11th. WisdomTree’s payout ratio is presently 16.00%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley set a $16.75 price objective on WisdomTree in a research note on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of WisdomTree from $14.00 to $15.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Northland Securities set a $20.00 price objective on shares of WisdomTree in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of WisdomTree from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 8th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of WisdomTree from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $17.65.

About WisdomTree

WisdomTree Investments, Inc (NYSE: WT) is a U.S.-based asset management firm specializing in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and exchange-traded products (ETPs). Founded in 2006 by Jonathan Steinberg and headquartered in New York City, WisdomTree has developed a reputation for pioneering smart-beta and fundamentally weighted indexing approaches. The company designs strategies that seek to enhance returns and reduce volatility by weighting constituents based on dividends, earnings or other financial metrics rather than relying solely on market capitalization.

WisdomTree offers a broad suite of investment products covering equities, fixed income, currencies, commodities and digital assets.