Lamb Weston Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:LW)

Lamb Weston (NYSE:LW) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Investors bought 10,933 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 161% compared to the average daily volume of 4,194 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LW has been the subject of several research reports. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Lamb Weston from $66.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 22nd. BNP Paribas Exane set a $48.00 target price on shares of Lamb Weston in a research report on Monday, December 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Lamb Weston from $62.00 to $50.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Barclays reduced their price objective on Lamb Weston from $68.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Lamb Weston in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lamb Weston currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $53.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Jan Eli B. Craps bought 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 6th. The shares were bought at an average price of $48.65 per share, with a total value of $2,432,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 300,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,595,000. This trade represents a 20.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lamb Weston

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LW. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Lamb Weston during the 4th quarter worth approximately $125,662,000. M&T Bank Corp boosted its stake in Lamb Weston by 45,177.0% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 2,835,245 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $118,768,000 after buying an additional 2,828,983 shares during the last quarter. Ion Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Lamb Weston during the second quarter worth $84,379,000. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in Lamb Weston by 2,682.3% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 801,708 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $33,584,000 after buying an additional 772,893 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Lamb Weston by 46.3% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 2,150,000 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $124,872,000 after acquiring an additional 680,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.56% of the company’s stock.

Lamb Weston Stock Performance

NYSE LW opened at $50.55 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.08, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 0.64. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $47.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $54.73. The company has a market cap of $7.02 billion, a PE ratio of 18.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.75 and a beta of 0.45. Lamb Weston has a 1-year low of $39.79 and a 1-year high of $67.07.

Lamb Weston (NYSE:LW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, December 19th. The specialty retailer reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. Lamb Weston had a return on equity of 27.71% and a net margin of 6.06%.The firm’s revenue was up 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.66 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Lamb Weston will post 3.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lamb Weston Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 30th will be paid a $0.38 dividend. This is an increase from Lamb Weston’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.37. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 30th. Lamb Weston’s payout ratio is 54.68%.

Lamb Weston Company Profile

Lamb Weston, traded on the NYSE under the symbol LW, is a leading global processor and supplier of frozen potato products. The company’s portfolio includes a variety of potato-based items such as French fries, potato wedges, hash browns and specialty cuts tailored to the foodservice and retail grocery channels. Lamb Weston serves quick-service restaurants, full-service operators, grocery chains and food distributors, offering customized product formats, packaging solutions and seasoning options to meet evolving customer demands.

Founded in 1950 and headquartered in Eagle, Idaho, Lamb Weston has grown from a regional processor into one of the world’s largest producers of frozen potato products.