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Sentiment · FY2026 Q1
What companies say about each other on earnings calls — extracted verbatim from public transcripts. Mentions from the newest quarter are a Pro feature.
“I look at a mega CRE investor like Blackstone and they had, I would say, more mixed results this quarter”
An analyst frames Blackstone as a large commercial-real-estate peer whose results this quarter were more mixed than Principal's, implying softer CRE performance at Blackstone.
“we've had 3 or 4 years where we were integrating successfully the Wells Fargo acquisition”
Principal references its multi-year integration of the acquired Wells Fargo institutional retirement business as now complete, freeing capacity for new growth.
“we were happy to announce the Barings partnership, and it gave us a unique opportunity to partner with them, but also have some co-investment opportunity as well”
Principal formed a strategic partnership with Barings to originate private-market assets for its general account, a fee-earning origination role for Barings.
“It looks like in investment management, you're selling another one of your boutiques with with Post Advisor Group for sale”
Principal Financial Group agreed to sell a majority ownership stake in its Post Advisory Group high-yield fixed income boutique, citing overlap with in-house capabilities; deal expected to close by year-end 2025 with immaterial earnings impact.
“I think [ Empower ] had the best margins they've ever had in the history of the company and guided to more expansion next year.”
An analyst noted that retirement-services competitor Empower posted record margins and guided to further expansion, raising the question of whether strong industry-wide margins could invite more pricing competition against Principal's RIS business.
“Our transaction with Bank Consortium Trust, or BCT, when approved, will transition our MPF schemes to BCT and expand our role as an investment manager with assets from the combined pension schemes.”
Principal is transferring its Hong Kong MPF pension schemes to Bank Consortium Trust amid a changing regulatory environment, while retaining an investment-management role over the combined assets -- a partial exit from a direct-to-consumer business line in favor of an asset-management relationship.
| Analyst | Firm | Questions (Challenge)Percentage of questions scored as challenging — where the analyst pushed back, pressed for specifics, or questioned management's assumptions. |
|---|---|---|
| Suneet Kamath | Jefferies | 12 (8%) |
| Jack Matten | BMO Capital Markets | 12 (0%) |
| Ryan Krueger | KBW |
| Joel Hurwitz | Dowling & Partners | 10 (20%) |
| Tom Gallagher | Evercore ISI | 10 (20%) |
| Wilma Burdis | Raymond James | 10 (0%) |
| Wes Carmichael | Wells Fargo | 10 (0%) |
| John Barnidge | Piper Sandler | 8 (0%) |
| Jim Bhullar | JPMorgan | 8 (50%) |
| Alex Scott | Barclays | 6 (0%) |
| Firm | Analysts | Questions (Challenge)Percentage of questions scored as challenging — where the analyst pushed back, pressed for specifics, or questioned management's assumptions. |
|---|---|---|
| BMO Capital Markets | 1 | 12 (0%) |
| Jefferies | 1 | 12 (8%) |
| Evercore ISI | 1 | 10 (20%) |
| Wells Fargo | 1 | 10 (0%) |
| Dowling & Partners | 1 | 10 (20%) |
| JPMorgan | 2 | 10 (40%) |
| KBW | 1 | 10 (20%) |
| Raymond James | 1 | 10 (0%) |
Principal Financial closed FY2025 with full-year adjusted EPS of $8.55 excluding special items, up 12% at the high end of the target range. Q4 non-GAAP operating EPS was $2.24, up 7%. FY2026 guidance was introduced with EPS growth of 9-12%, raised ROE target of 15-17% (from 14-16%), and increased capital deployment of $1.5-1.8 billion. Record specialty benefits underwriting was achieved with the best-ever loss ratio. Private markets drove asset management growth with 50% sales increase. Free capital flow conversion reached 92%.
Demand | Competitive Dynamics | Revenue Growth | Margin | Pricing | Capital Allocation | Product Launch | M&A | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024Q4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025Q1 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | |
| 2025Q2 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | |
| 2025Q3 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025Q4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 2026Q1 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| '24Q4 | '25Q1 | '25Q2 | '25Q3 | '25Q4 | '26Q1 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demand | 4 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 7 |
| Competitive Dynamics | 5 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 5 |
| Revenue Growth | 4 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Margin | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| Pricing | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Capital Allocation | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | ||
| Product Launch | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| M&A | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Company | Score | Trend | Rev YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
PFG Principal Financial Group | 7 | -4.5% | |
| ACGL Arch Capital Group | 3 | -5.0% | |
| AIG American International Group | 6 | -1.8% | |
| BRK-B Berkshire Hathaway | 4 | n/a | |
| HIG Hartford (The) | 6 | +6.1% |