Principal Financial Group Inc. Buys New Position in Tecnoglass Inc. (NASDAQ:TGLS)

Principal Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Tecnoglass Inc. (NASDAQ:TGLS) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 32,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,211,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc lifted its position in Tecnoglass by 219.7% during the 2nd quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 218,189 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,949,000 after buying an additional 149,933 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Tecnoglass by 8.7% in the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 1,754,892 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,060,000 after acquiring an additional 140,112 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Tecnoglass by 12.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 884,527 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,385,000 after acquiring an additional 96,602 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Tecnoglass during the second quarter valued at approximately $3,929,000. Finally, Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its stake in Tecnoglass by 65.0% in the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 165,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,329,000 after purchasing an additional 65,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 37.35% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tecnoglass

In other Tecnoglass news, Director Julio A. Torres sold 30,520 shares of Tecnoglass stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.83, for a total value of $2,222,771.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Holding Corp Energy sold 1,432,120 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.02, for a total transaction of $104,573,402.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 23,195,988 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,693,771,043.76. This represents a 5.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Tecnoglass Price Performance

Shares of TGLS opened at $79.34 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $71.29 and its 200-day moving average is $59.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.21 and a quick ratio of 1.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.73 billion, a PE ratio of 24.72 and a beta of 1.86. Tecnoglass Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.90 and a fifty-two week high of $80.51.

Tecnoglass (NASDAQ:TGLS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.97 by $0.11. Tecnoglass had a net margin of 17.82% and a return on equity of 27.71%. The firm had revenue of $237.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $240.19 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 13.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Tecnoglass Inc. will post 3.55 EPS for the current year.

Tecnoglass Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 31st. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a $0.11 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.55%. Tecnoglass’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.75%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on TGLS shares. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Tecnoglass from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Tecnoglass from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Sidoti cut shares of Tecnoglass from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $78.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. DA Davidson lifted their price target on Tecnoglass from $65.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Raymond James lowered Tecnoglass from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $77.40.

About Tecnoglass

Tecnoglass Inc manufactures, supplies, and installs architectural glass, windows, and associated aluminum and vinyl products for commercial and residential construction markets in Colombia, the United States, Panama, and internationally. The company provides low emissivity, laminated/thermo-laminated, thermo-acoustic, tempered, silk-screened, curved, and digital print glass products.