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December 03, 2015 at 07:38 AM
(Bloomberg) — Principal Financial Group Inc. declined the most in the 87-company Standard and Poor’s 500 Financials Index after the insurer’s forecast for growth at a retirement operation disappointed some analysts.
The insurer slumped 4.5 percent to $48.87 at 11:27 a.m. in New York, extending its loss for the year to 5.9 percent. Revenue growth at fee-based retirement and income-solutions operations will be 2 percent to 4 percent next year, the company said Thursday.
Sean Dargan, an analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd., told the company on a conference call that the outlook was lower than what he’d expected. Rivals including Vanguard Group Inc. have been seeking to win business with employers, and Des Moines, Iowa-based Principal also cited new regulations from the U.S. Department of Labor.
The 2016 forecast accounts for “pressure we’re going to have on 401(k) competition,” Chief Executive Officer Daniel Houston said on the call. “We’ve got a little bit of overhang on DOL relative to contingency plans, putting those in place to make sure we’re able to absorb any sort of regulatory change in ’16 and ’17.”
