Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) Cut to Neutral at Northcoast Research

Northcoast Research lowered shares of Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research note released on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on CASY. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on 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 reaffirmed a buy rating and issued a $312.00 price target on shares of Casey’s General Stores in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Casey’s General Stores from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. StockNews.com cut shares of Casey’s General Stores from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Casey’s General Stores currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $312.63.

Casey’s General Stores Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CASY opened at $335.48 on Wednesday. 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 has a fifty-two week low of $212.50 and a fifty-two week high of $344.01. The firm has a market cap of $12.42 billion, a PE ratio of 26.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.82. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $316.78 and a 200-day moving average price of $293.85.

Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 12th. The company reported $2.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.20 by $0.13. Casey’s General Stores had a net margin of 3.23% and a return on equity of 16.70%. The business had revenue of $3.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.51 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.36 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Casey’s General Stores will post 12.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Casey’s General Stores Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st were paid a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 30th. Casey’s General Stores’s dividend payout ratio is 13.67%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Casey’s General Stores

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CASY. Impax Asset Management Group plc bought a new stake in Casey’s General Stores in the fourth quarter worth $2,596,000. Comerica Bank bought a new position in Casey’s General Stores in the 3rd quarter worth about $5,834,000. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in Casey’s General Stores during the 4th quarter valued at about $666,000. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Casey’s General Stores by 114.1% during the 3rd quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 6,297 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,710,000 after purchasing an additional 3,356 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in Casey’s General Stores in the third quarter worth about $1,336,000. 85.63% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.