Principal Financial Group Inc. Buys 439,255 Shares of Chewy, Inc. (NYSE:CHWY)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Chewy, Inc. (NYSE:CHWY) by 82.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 970,964 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 439,255 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Chewy were worth $32,518,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Chewy during the fourth quarter valued at about $664,000. Allworth Financial LP grew its stake in shares of Chewy by 52.0% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,000 after buying an additional 650 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers grew its stake in shares of Chewy by 4,096.3% during the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 255,096 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,543,000 after buying an additional 249,017 shares during the last quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board bought a new position in shares of Chewy during the fourth quarter valued at about $971,000. Finally, New York State Teachers Retirement System bought a new position in shares of Chewy during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,570,000. 93.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CHWY has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America raised Chewy from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $24.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Chewy from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Argus upgraded shares of Chewy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Chewy from $39.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Chewy from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $36.80.

Chewy Stock Performance

CHWY stock opened at $35.03 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $36.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.84. Chewy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $14.69 and a 52-week high of $40.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.49, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.10.

Chewy (NYSE:CHWY) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, December 4th. The company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.15. Chewy had a net margin of 3.51% and a return on equity of 24.47%. The firm had revenue of $2.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.86 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.08) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Chewy, Inc. will post 0.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Argos Holdings Gp Llc sold 19,827,242 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.32, for a total transaction of $620,989,219.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Sumit Singh sold 9,285 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.00, for a total transaction of $371,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 489,750 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,590,000. This trade represents a 1.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 28,561,427 shares of company stock worth $933,874,848. Insiders own 2.10% of the company’s stock.

About Chewy

Chewy, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the pure play e-commerce business in the United States. It provides pet food and treats, pet supplies and pet medications, and other pet-health products, as well as pet services for dogs, cats, fish, birds, small pets, horses, and reptiles through its retail websites and mobile applications.