When you look for attractive investment opportunities, you might have taken a deeper look at the activities of the professionals like George Soros (Trades, Portfolio), Bill Ackman (Trades, Portfolio) or Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio).
Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio) is one of the most respected investors in the world and his investment criteria are simple: Buy a growing business with inimitable assets at a reasonable price. Here are his criteria from his annual letter in detail:
(1) Large purchases (at least $75 million of pre-tax earnings unless the business will fit into one of our existing units),
(2) Demonstrated consistent earning power (future projections are of no interest to us, nor are "turnaround" situations),
(3) Businesses earning good returns on equity while employing little or no debt,
(4) Management in place (we can't supply it),
(5) Simple businesses (if there's lots of technology, we won't understand it),
(6) An offering price (we don't want to waste our time or that of the seller by talking, even preliminarily, about a transaction when price is unknown).
It sounds simple but often it is hard to find concrete stocks that could meet his restrictions.
Today, I'd like to close this gap by introducing some stocks that would appear on Warren Buffett's investing radar.
These are the results....
Principal Financial Group (PFG, Financial) employs 14,873 people, generates revenue of $10,555.60 million and has a net income of $1,176.40 million. The current market capitalization stands at $15.06 billion.
Principal Financial Group's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $1,742.40 million. The EBITDA margin is 16.51% (the operating margin is 14.16% and the net profit margin 11.14%).
Financials: The total debt represents 1.17% of Principal Financial Group assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 25.13%. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 11.18% was realized by Principal Financial Group.
Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $3.72. Last fiscal year, Principal Financial Group paid $1.28 in the form of dividends to shareholders.
Market Valuation: Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 14.09, the P/S ratio is 1.46 and the P/B ratio is 1.51. The dividend yield amounts to 2.74%. Â
