Principal Financial Group Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in Enterprise Financial Services Corp (NASDAQ:EFSC)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Enterprise Financial Services Corp (NASDAQ:EFSC) by 16.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,124 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 3,268 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Enterprise Financial Services were worth $827,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Enterprise Financial Services by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,084,093 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $85,257,000 after purchasing an additional 71,502 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Enterprise Financial Services by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,020,424 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $81,948,000 after acquiring an additional 25,576 shares in the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Enterprise Financial Services by 3.2% during the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,955,988 shares of the bank’s stock worth $80,019,000 after acquiring an additional 59,809 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Enterprise Financial Services by 19.1% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 655,490 shares of the bank’s stock worth $26,816,000 after acquiring an additional 104,960 shares during the period. Finally, F M Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Enterprise Financial Services by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. F M Investments LLC now owns 218,978 shares of the bank’s stock worth $11,225,000 after acquiring an additional 1,835 shares in the last quarter. 72.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Richard Sanborn sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.56, for a total transaction of $5,956,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 40,950 shares in the company, valued at $2,438,982. This trade represents a 70.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Enterprise Financial Services from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd.

Enterprise Financial Services Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ EFSC opened at $60.74 on Friday. Enterprise Financial Services Corp has a 1 year low of $36.73 and a 1 year high of $61.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $53.63 and a 200 day moving average of $47.75. The stock has a market cap of $2.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.87 and a beta of 0.96.

Enterprise Financial Services (NASDAQ:EFSC) last announced its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $1.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.15. Enterprise Financial Services had a net margin of 19.73% and a return on equity of 10.81%. The business had revenue of $164.89 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $157.56 million. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Enterprise Financial Services Corp will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Enterprise Financial Services Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is a boost from Enterprise Financial Services’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 16th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.84%. Enterprise Financial Services’s payout ratio is presently 22.88%.

Enterprise Financial Services Company Profile

Enterprise Financial Services Corp operates as the holding company for Enterprise Bank & Trust that offers banking and wealth management services to individuals and corporate customers primarily in Arizona, California, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, and New Mexico. It provides checking, savings, money market accounts, and certificates of deposit.