Victory Capital Management Inc. Has $11.13 Million Stock Position in Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI)

Victory Capital Management Inc. lessened its position in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 577,129 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock after selling 50,361 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned about 0.15% of Levi Strauss & Co. worth $11,127,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in LEVI. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. by 17.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 6,625,378 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock valued at $109,584,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000,000 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Levi Strauss & Co. by 20.4% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,432,143 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock valued at $23,688,000 after purchasing an additional 242,882 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in Levi Strauss & Co. by 18.7% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,245,542 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock valued at $20,601,000 after buying an additional 196,270 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Levi Strauss & Co. by 2.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,555,997 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock valued at $171,034,000 after buying an additional 164,612 shares during the period. Finally, Bragg Financial Advisors Inc boosted its holdings in Levi Strauss & Co. by 44.6% during the fourth quarter. Bragg Financial Advisors Inc now owns 526,334 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock worth $8,706,000 after buying an additional 162,423 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on LEVI shares. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Levi Strauss & Co. from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 27th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. OTR Global started coverage on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. in a research report on Friday, June 14th. They issued a “positive” rating for the company. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $26.00 target price on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $23.38.

Insider Activity at Levi Strauss & Co.

In related news, Director David A. Friedman sold 4,166 shares of Levi Strauss & Co. stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.37, for a total value of $80,695.42. Following the sale, the director now owns 162,510 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,147,818.70. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 12,498 shares of company stock valued at $236,421. Corporate insiders own 3.14% of the company’s stock.

Levi Strauss & Co. Price Performance

LEVI stock opened at $19.93 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $18.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $20.11. Levi Strauss & Co. has a 1 year low of $12.41 and a 1 year high of $24.34. The stock has a market cap of $7.92 billion, a PE ratio of 56.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, June 26th. The blue-jean maker reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.05. Levi Strauss & Co. had a return on equity of 23.21% and a net margin of 2.34%. The business had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.45 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.04 EPS. Levi Strauss & Co.’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Levi Strauss & Co. will post 1.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Levi Strauss & Co. Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 20th. Investors of record on Friday, August 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. This is a boost from Levi Strauss & Co.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 2nd. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.61%. Levi Strauss & Co.’s dividend payout ratio is presently 148.57%.

About Levi Strauss & Co.

Levi Strauss & Co designs, markets, and sells apparels and related accessories for men, women, and children worldwide. The company offers jeans, casual and dress pants, activewears, tops, shorts, skirts, dresses, jumpsuits, shirts, sweaters, jackets, footwear, and related accessories under the Levi's, Dockers, Signature by Levi Strauss & Co, Denizen, and Beyond Yoga brands.