Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) was downgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Friday.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Casey’s General Stores from $451.00 to $454.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Casey’s General Stores from $435.00 to $440.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Casey’s General Stores from $415.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Casey’s General Stores from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $300.00 to $337.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and set a $410.00 price objective on shares of Casey’s General Stores in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $419.45.

Casey’s General Stores Stock Down 0.1 %

NASDAQ CASY opened at $425.27 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $15.79 billion, a PE ratio of 29.64 and a beta of 0.80. Casey’s General Stores has a fifty-two week low of $266.58 and a fifty-two week high of $439.68. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $405.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $381.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, December 9th. The company reported $4.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.29 by $0.56. The firm had revenue of $3.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. Casey’s General Stores had a return on equity of 17.17% and a net margin of 3.57%. Casey’s General Stores’s quarterly revenue was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $4.24 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Casey’s General Stores will post 14.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Katrina S. Lindsey sold 450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $427.13, for a total transaction of $192,208.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 2,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $959,761.11. This trade represents a 16.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Mike Spanos purchased 267 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $376.18 per share, for a total transaction of $100,440.06. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 2,594 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $975,810.92. This trade represents a 11.47 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.56% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Casey’s General Stores by 3.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,046,830 shares of the company’s stock valued at $393,305,000 after purchasing an additional 38,226 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Casey’s General Stores by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 655,488 shares of the company’s stock valued at $246,335,000 after purchasing an additional 8,428 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of Casey’s General Stores by 49.9% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 524,237 shares of the company’s stock valued at $204,861,000 after purchasing an additional 174,586 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Casey’s General Stores by 3.2% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 468,650 shares of the company’s stock valued at $178,822,000 after purchasing an additional 14,750 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Casey’s General Stores by 20.4% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 458,044 shares of the company’s stock worth $174,771,000 after acquiring an additional 77,515 shares during the period. 85.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Casey’s General Stores

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.