Texas Yale Capital Corp. Acquires Shares of 30,175 Lamb Weston $LW

Texas Yale Capital Corp. acquired a new stake in shares of Lamb Weston (NYSE:LW) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 30,175 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $1,264,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its stake in Lamb Weston by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 9,685 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $563,000 after acquiring an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Lamb Weston by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,718 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $216,000 after acquiring an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC raised its stake in Lamb Weston by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC now owns 3,101 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $130,000 after acquiring an additional 229 shares during the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC raised its stake in Lamb Weston by 115.5% during the 3rd quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 446 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 239 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fiduciary Trust Co raised its stake in Lamb Weston by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. Fiduciary Trust Co now owns 4,324 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $251,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. 89.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LW has been the subject of several analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on Lamb Weston from $46.00 to $40.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Lamb Weston from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. Stephens assumed coverage on Lamb Weston in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $46.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America dropped their target price on Lamb Weston from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Lamb Weston from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $47.82.

Lamb Weston Stock Performance

NYSE LW opened at $43.21 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99. The business’s 50 day moving average is $42.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $46.68. Lamb Weston has a 12-month low of $37.62 and a 12-month high of $67.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.19, a PEG ratio of 6.24 and a beta of 0.47.

Lamb Weston (NYSE:LW) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 1st. The specialty retailer reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.11. Lamb Weston had a return on equity of 23.77% and a net margin of 4.61%.The company had revenue of $1.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.10 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Lamb Weston will post 2.85 EPS for the current year.

Lamb Weston Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 5th. Investors of record on Friday, May 8th will be issued a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 8th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. Lamb Weston’s dividend payout ratio is currently 71.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Jana Partners Management, Lp purchased 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $43.19 per share, for a total transaction of $2,159,500.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 5,398,980 shares in the company, valued at approximately $233,181,946.20. The trade was a 0.93% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Peter J. Bensen purchased 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 6th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $39.45 per share, for a total transaction of $197,250.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 17,204 shares in the company, valued at approximately $678,697.80. This trade represents a 40.97% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders purchased 391,000 shares of company stock worth $16,270,790. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Lamb Weston 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.