Principal Financial Group (PFG)
Forward P/E is 11.30x against a peer median of 9.55x, a ratio of 1.18x — just above the fair range — with trailing P/E 12.48x and PEG 1.19. Latest-quarter revenue fell -4.5% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), so the premium is not supported by delivered growth. Delivered demand check: the Life & health insurance group's median growth was 8.0% year over year — demand rising across the group, while Principal shrank.
What would change this label: Move to FAIRLY PRICED if the forward P/E compresses to about 10.98x or below (1.15x the peer median) at unchanged estimates, or if revenue growth returns above 8% year over year for two quarters. Move further from fair value if revenue growth stays below 0% year over year while the forward multiple rises above about 13.14x (the current forward P/E scaled to the peer median).
Principal helps employers and savers with retirement plans, investments and insurance. Its shares cost about 11 times next year's expected profit, a little more than similar companies at about 10 times, even though its latest sales fell about 5%. Paying a premium while sales shrink makes the shares look slightly expensive.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Principal Financial Group returned +161.15% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Principal Financial Group: -31.1% (2022-11-11 to 2023-05-31). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 11.30x against a peer median of 9.55x, a ratio of 1.18x — just above the fair range — with trailing P/E 12.48x and PEG 1.19. Latest-quarter revenue fell -4.5% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), so the premium is not supported by delivered growth. Delivered demand check: the Life & health insurance group's median growth was 8.0% year over year — demand rising across the group, while Principal shrank. The company’s forward P/E is 11.3× against a peer median of 9.6×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the Life & health insurance group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 8.0% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising. Latest-quarter sales growth was -4.5% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Principal Financial Group (PFG) | $112.25 | 11.3× | 12.5× |
| GL | $156.89 | 9.8× | 10.5× |
| PRU | $115.56 | 8.7× | 10.4× |
| AFL | $121.59 | 16.5× | 13.0× |
| MET | $100.06 | 9.3× | 19.2× |
| Peer median | 9.6× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
This company does not report a gross-profit line in its SEC facts (normal for banks, payment networks and some health insurers), so profit is shown as net income instead — gross margin is marked UNVERIFIED-absent rather than estimated.
Free cash flow by quarter is not shown for Principal Financial Group. Its SEC cash-flow facts do not separately tag spending on plant and equipment (normal for a bank), so a quarterly free-cash-flow figure cannot be built without estimating — and this programme does not estimate.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Mar 2026 2026-03-31 | $3.5B | — | $425M | 1.93 | — |
| Q/E Dec 2025 2025-12-31 | $4.6B | — | $517M | — | — |
| Q/E Sep 2025 2025-09-30 | $3.7B | — | $214M | 0.95 | — |
| Q/E Jun 2025 2025-06-30 | $3.7B | — | $406M | 1.79 | — |
| Q/E Mar 2025 2025-03-31 | $3.7B | — | $48M | 0.21 | — |
| Q/E Dec 2024 2024-12-31 | $4.8B | — | $905M | — | — |
| Q/E Sep 2024 2024-09-30 | $3.0B | — | $-220M | -0.95 | — |
| Q/E Jun 2024 2024-06-30 | $4.3B | — | $353M | 1.49 | — |
| Q/E Mar 2024 2024-03-31 | $4.1B | — | $532M | 2.22 | — |
| Q/E Dec 2023 2023-12-31 | $2.7B | — | $-872M | — | — |
| Q/E Sep 2023 2023-09-30 | $4.6B | — | $1.2B | 5.10 | — |
| Q/E Jun 2023 2023-06-30 | $3.6B | — | $389M | 1.58 | — |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 23-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | PRINCIPAL FINANCIAL GROUP INC |
| Chief executive | Deanna Strable (source: https://www.principal.com/about-us/news-room/news-releases/principal-announce-third-quarter-2026-financial-results) |
| Sector | Financials — Life & Health Insurance — sells retirement, asset management and insurance products to employers and individuals |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $112.25 |
| Market value (market cap) | $24.2B — share price times shares outstanding of 216,012,384 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $15.5B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $1.6B |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | — |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Mar 2026 (of 23 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | +161.15% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -31.1% (2022-11-11 to 2023-05-31) |
What we could not verify
- Gross profit / gross margin: not tagged as a standalone line in this company's EDGAR company facts (common for banks, payment networks and some healthcare payers) — shown as UNVERIFIED-absent; the page charts revenue and net income instead.
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Free cash flow is absent for one or more quarters: either the filer does not separately tag PP&E purchases in its EDGAR cash-flow facts (common for banks), or — for a successor registrant's newest quarter — the cash-flow lines are year-to-date without the prior-quarter rung needed to difference them. Affected quarters are null in the data, never estimated.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0001126328.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001126328.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/PFG/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.