Principal Financial Group Inc. Trims Stake in Berry Co. (NASDAQ:BRY)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its stake in Berry Co. (NASDAQ:BRY) by 15.1% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 230,478 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 41,094 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Berry were worth $1,185,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Berry by 5.1% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,527,531 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $29,248,000 after acquiring an additional 219,468 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Berry by 1.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,359,786 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $35,096,000 after purchasing an additional 77,487 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of Berry by 1.4% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,693,611 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $13,845,000 after buying an additional 37,904 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management raised its stake in shares of Berry by 11.0% during the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,696,400 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $10,959,000 after buying an additional 167,537 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of Berry by 23.6% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,664,292 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $10,751,000 after buying an additional 318,223 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.88% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Berry from $7.00 to $5.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 18th.

Berry Stock Down 0.7 %

BRY opened at $4.23 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $325.46 million, a PE ratio of 3.92 and a beta of 1.72. Berry Co. has a twelve month low of $4.10 and a twelve month high of $8.88. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $5.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $5.98. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Berry (NASDAQ:BRY) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The energy company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $259.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $186.67 million. Berry had a net margin of 9.40% and a return on equity of 6.50%. Berry’s revenue was up 31.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.15 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Berry Co. will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Berry Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.84%. Berry’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 11.11%.

Berry Profile

Berry Petroleum Company, LLC., formerly Berry Petroleum Company, is an independent energy company. The Company is engaged in the production, development, exploitation, and acquisition of oil and natural gas. The Company’s principal reserves and producing properties are located in California (South Midway-Sunset (SMWSS)-Steam Floods, North Midway-Sunset (NMWSS)-Diatomite, NMWSS-New Steam Floods, Texas (Permian and E.