Principal Financial Group Inc. Raises Position in Spotify Technology $SPOT

Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Spotify Technology (NYSE:SPOT) by 3,534.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 571,474 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 555,752 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Spotify Technology were worth $398,889,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of SPOT. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Spotify Technology by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,574,228 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,509,988,000 after acquiring an additional 74,256 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in Spotify Technology by 22.7% during the 2nd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,489,013 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,909,920,000 after acquiring an additional 460,115 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Spotify Technology by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,568,502 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,192,730,000 after purchasing an additional 49,377 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Spotify Technology by 17.3% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,454,383 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,116,007,000 after purchasing an additional 214,355 shares during the period. Finally, Edgewood Management LLC lifted its position in Spotify Technology by 14.4% in the second quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 1,249,791 shares of the company’s stock valued at $959,015,000 after purchasing an additional 157,567 shares during the last quarter. 84.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on SPOT. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Spotify Technology in a report on Monday, December 29th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Spotify Technology from $850.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Pivotal Research cut their price target on shares of Spotify Technology from $900.00 to $875.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price objective on shares of Spotify Technology from $675.00 to $615.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their target price on shares of Spotify Technology from $830.00 to $650.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Spotify Technology has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $727.71.

Spotify Technology Stock Performance

Spotify Technology stock opened at $499.69 on Friday. Spotify Technology has a fifty-two week low of $475.01 and a fifty-two week high of $785.00. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $558.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $637.01. The stock has a market cap of $102.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 78.57, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.66.

Spotify Technology (NYSE:SPOT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The company reported $3.83 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.87 by $1.96. Spotify Technology had a return on equity of 21.68% and a net margin of 8.46%.The company had revenue of $5.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.23 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.45 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Spotify Technology will post 10.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Spotify Technology Profile

Spotify Technology is a digital audio streaming company best known for its on-demand music service and a growing portfolio of spoken-word content. Founded in Sweden in 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon and launched commercially in 2008, the company offers a cross-platform app that enables users to discover, stream and organize music, podcasts and other audio. Its primary consumer products include a free, ad-supported tier and a paid Spotify Premium subscription that provides ad-free listening, offline playback and higher-quality audio streams.