Are Hedge Funds Losing Interest In Principal Financial Group Inc (PFG)?

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After several tireless days we have finished crunching the numbers from the more than 700 13F filings issued by the elite hedge funds and other investment firms that we track at Insider Monkey, which disclosed those firms’ equity portfolios as of September 30. The results of that effort will be put on display in this article, as we share valuable insight into the smart money sentiment towards Principal Financial Group Inc (NYSE:PFG).

Principal Financial Group Inc (NYSE:PFG) has seen a decrease in enthusiasm from smart money recently. PFG was in 19 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. There were 21 hedge funds in our database with PFG holdings at the end of the previous quarter. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Medivation Inc (NASDAQ:MDVN), Advance Auto Parts, Inc. (NYSE:AAP), and Rogers Communications Inc. (USA) (NYSE:RCI) to gather more data points.

Follow Principal Financial Group Inc (NYSE:PFG)

Today there are dozens of tools shareholders put to use to assess stocks. A duo of the less utilized tools are hedge fund and insider trading signals. our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the best investment managers can outpace their index-focused peers by a healthy amount (see the details here).

Keeping this in mind, let’s analyze the recent action surrounding Principal Financial Group Inc (NYSE:PFG).

How have hedgies been trading Principal Financial Group Inc (NYSE:PFG)?

At the end of the third quarter, a total of 19 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of -10% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings substantially (or already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital has the most valuable position in Principal Financial Group Inc (NYSE:PFG), worth close to $95.9 million, comprising 0.5% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Winton Capital Management, led by David Harding, holding a $20.9 million position; the fund has 0.2% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining professional money managers with similar optimism contain Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors and Ron Bobman’s Capital Returns Management.

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