Benjamin Edwards Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY)

Benjamin Edwards Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,861 shares of the company’s stock after selling 61 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in Casey’s General Stores were worth $1,885,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Casey’s General Stores by 142.8% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 242,923 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,959,000 after purchasing an additional 142,884 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Casey’s General Stores by 7.7% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,585,359 shares of the company’s stock valued at $430,458,000 after acquiring an additional 113,437 shares in the last quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC bought a new stake in shares of Casey’s General Stores in the third quarter valued at about $21,993,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Casey’s General Stores in the fourth quarter worth about $167,570,000. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its holdings in Casey’s General Stores by 26.3% during the 3rd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 191,422 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,975,000 after acquiring an additional 39,896 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.63% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Casey’s General Stores from $305.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $312.00 price objective on shares of Casey’s General Stores in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Casey’s General Stores from $350.00 to $345.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Casey’s General Stores from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Casey’s General Stores from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Casey’s General Stores has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $312.63.

Casey’s General Stores Stock Down 0.8 %

CASY stock traded down $2.58 on Thursday, hitting $316.08. 135,468 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 279,121. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $309.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $288.77. Casey’s General Stores, Inc. has a 12-month low of $212.50 and a 12-month high of $324.40. The stock has a market cap of $11.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a current ratio of 0.89.

Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 12th. The company reported $2.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.20 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $3.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.51 billion. Casey’s General Stores had a net margin of 3.23% and a return on equity of 16.70%. Casey’s General Stores’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.36 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Casey’s General Stores, Inc. will post 12.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Casey’s General Stores Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be given a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th. Casey’s General Stores’s payout ratio is 13.67%.

Casey’s General Stores Profile

Casey's General Stores, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates convenience stores under the Casey's and Casey's General Store names. Its stores offer pizza, donuts, breakfast items, and sandwiches; and tobacco and nicotine products. The company's stores provide soft drinks, energy, water, sports drinks, juices, coffee, and tea and dairy products; beer, wine, and spirits; snacks, candy, packaged bakery, and other food items; ice, ice cream, meals, and appetizers; health and beauty aids, automotive products, electronic accessories, housewares, and pet supplies; and ATM, lotto/lottery, and prepaid cards.