Principal Financial Group Inc. Buys 16,023 Shares of Ormat Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:ORA)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ormat Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:ORA – Get Rating) by 9.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 191,291 shares of the energy company’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,023 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Ormat Technologies were worth $16,543,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ORA. US Bancorp DE boosted its position in Ormat Technologies by 10.5% during the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,963 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $324,000 after buying an additional 375 shares during the period. AlphaCrest Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ormat Technologies during the 1st quarter worth approximately $360,000. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its position in Ormat Technologies by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 14,424 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,150,000 after buying an additional 355 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Ormat Technologies by 57.7% in the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 24,095 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,972,000 after purchasing an additional 8,812 shares during the period. Finally, BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ormat Technologies by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,650,385 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $380,541,000 after purchasing an additional 20,844 shares during the period. 81.74% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ORA. Roth Mkm lowered their price objective on shares of Ormat Technologies from $104.00 to $93.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 27th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Ormat Technologies from $91.00 to $88.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 27th. Barclays began coverage on shares of Ormat Technologies in a research note on Monday. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $89.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group upgraded shares of Ormat Technologies from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $103.00 to $105.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 1st. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Ormat Technologies in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They set a “sell” rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $91.86.

Ormat Technologies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ORA opened at $84.46 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $84.33 and its 200 day moving average is $87.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a current ratio of 2.07. The company has a market capitalization of $5.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 0.46. Ormat Technologies, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $67.28 and a fifty-two week high of $101.81.

Ormat Technologies (NYSE:ORA – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 9th. The energy company reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $185.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $212.86 million. Ormat Technologies had a net margin of 10.39% and a return on equity of 4.86%. The company’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.35 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Ormat Technologies, Inc. will post 2.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Ormat Technologies Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 23rd will be issued a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 22nd. Ormat Technologies’s payout ratio is 35.56%.

Ormat Technologies Profile

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Ormat Technologies, Inc operates as a holding company. The firm engages in the geothermal and recovered energy power businesses. It operates through the following segments: Electricity, Product and Energy Storage. The Electricity segment focuses on the sale of electricity from the company’s power plants pursuant to power purchase agreements.