Principal Financial Group Q3 2026 earnings: profit trails forecasts despite underlying growth
Principal's adjusted profit and revenue both came in a bit below forecasts, though underlying earnings grew, benefits and dividends rose, and 2026 targets held steady.
| Q3 2026 | Reported | Expected | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| EPS | $2.22 | $2.44 | -8.9% |
| Revenue | $4.28B | $4.31B | -0.9% |
Key takeaways
- Adjusted profit of $2.22 per share came in below the roughly $2.44 analysts had forecast, and revenue of $4.275 billion was also a touch short of the about $4.31 billion expected.
- Stripping out one-time swings, Principal’s underlying operating profit per share was $2.49, up 7% from a year earlier — a sign the core insurance and investment businesses kept growing even though the headline number missed forecasts.
- Specialty Benefits (life, disability, dental and vision coverage sold to employers) was a bright spot: premiums and fees rose 6% and new sales rose 10%, while the share of premiums paid out in claims fell to 59%, better than management’s own 60-64% target range.
- Retirement-plan earnings dipped slightly as investment income on customer deposits softened versus a year ago, while life insurance profitability improved on fewer-than-expected claims.
- The asset-management business grew the money it oversees by 10% to $166.2 billion, but its profit fell because of weaker returns on a block of insurance-linked investments tied to Principal’s Latin American operations.
- Principal returned $429 million to shareholders in the quarter — $250 million in share buybacks and $179 million in dividends — and raised its quarterly dividend 8% from a year earlier, to $0.85 per share.
- Total assets under management reached $785 billion, and management said its 2026 profit-growth and capital-spending targets are unchanged, even after closing its acquisition of small-business benefits platform Beam Benefits on September 1.
- Over the past year the company has converted close to 10 cents of every revenue dollar into net profit and earned about 13% on shareholders’ equity, both signs of steady, if unspectacular, profitability even as this quarter’s result lagged forecasts.
How the stock took it
Principal Financial Group Inc closed at $108.57 on Oct 23, 2026, the last session before the report, and at $111.98 on Oct 27, 2026, the first session after it — +3.1% across the report.
Closes from the market's daily record. Each figure spans the report date — from the last session that closed before it to the first that closed after — because a company may report before the open or after the close.
Fundamentals
| Metric | Value | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Operating margin | 12.8% | Trailing 12 months |
| Net profit margin | 9.9% | Trailing 12 months |
| Pretax margin | 11.8% | Trailing 12 months |
| EPS | $7.05 | Trailing 12 months |
| Revenue growth (YoY) | 3.3% | Trailing 12 months |
| EPS growth (YoY) | 42.0% | Trailing 12 months |
| Return on equity | 13.1% | Trailing 12 months |
Sources: company report