Principal Financial Group Inc. Acquires 4,315,414 Shares of NiCE $NICE

Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in NiCE (NASDAQ:NICE) by 1,637.6% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,578,940 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,315,414 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.08% of NiCE worth $504,874,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in NICE. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC bought a new stake in NiCE during the 2nd quarter worth about $40,000. Manchester Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of NiCE during the fourth quarter worth approximately $39,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of NiCE during the first quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in shares of NiCE during the second quarter valued at approximately $65,000. Finally, MidFirst Bank acquired a new stake in shares of NiCE in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $69,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wedbush dropped their price objective on shares of NiCE from $120.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 10th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of NiCE in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $155.00 price target on shares of NiCE in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on NiCE from $148.00 to $130.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Citizens Jmp reduced their target price on shares of NiCE from $200.00 to $170.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NiCE has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $131.17.

NiCE Stock Up 3.7%

NASDAQ:NICE opened at $103.48 on Tuesday. NiCE has a 12-month low of $83.10 and a 12-month high of $175.00. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $92.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.77.

NiCE (NASDAQ:NICE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $2.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.52 by $0.12. NiCE had a return on equity of 17.42% and a net margin of 17.57%.The business had revenue of $768.62 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $760.94 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.87 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. NiCE has set its FY 2026 guidance at 10.980-11.180 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.600-2.700 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that NiCE will post 9.08 earnings per share for the current year.

NiCE Profile

NiCE Ltd is a global software provider specializing in solutions for customer engagement, financial crime prevention, public safety, workforce optimization and border security. Its product offerings include cloud-native and on-premises platforms that leverage advanced analytics, artificial intelligence and automation to help organizations enhance customer experiences, streamline operations and ensure regulatory compliance. NiCE’s portfolio addresses the needs of contact centers, financial institutions, government agencies and enterprises across a broad range of industries.

In customer engagement, NiCE delivers tools for omnichannel interaction management, real-time and historical analytics, workforce management, and quality management.