Casey's General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY) Receives $424.00 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Casey's General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY - Get Free Report) has earned a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the eleven ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation and seven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $424.00.

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Benchmark reissued a "buy" rating and set a $410.00 target price on shares of Casey's General Stores in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Casey's General Stores from $415.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Casey's General Stores from $460.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Casey's General Stores from $403.00 to $428.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Melius Research assumed coverage on shares of Casey's General Stores in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. They issued a "buy" rating and a $435.00 price target for the company.

Casey's General Stores Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CASY traded down $5.99 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $403.16. The stock had a trading volume of 765,340 shares, compared to its average volume of 268,101. Casey's General Stores has a 1 year low of $268.07 and a 1 year high of $439.68. The firm's 50 day moving average is $407.76 and its 200-day moving average is $383.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.09 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a current ratio of 0.88.

Casey's General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, December 9th. The company reported $4.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.29 by $0.56. Casey's General Stores had a return on equity of 17.17% and a net margin of 3.57%. The firm had revenue of $3.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $4.24 earnings per share. Casey's General Stores's revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Casey's General Stores will post 14.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Casey's General Stores Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. Casey's General Stores's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Casey's General Stores news, insider Katrina S. Lindsey sold 450 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $427.13, for a total value 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. The trade was a 16.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.56% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Casey's General Stores

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CASY. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC purchased a new stake in Casey's General Stores in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $23,294,000. Logan Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Casey's General Stores during the third quarter worth $2,049,000. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new position in Casey's General Stores in the third quarter worth $899,000. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in Casey's General Stores by 49.9% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 524,237 shares of the company's stock valued at $204,861,000 after acquiring an additional 174,586 shares during the period. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Casey's General Stores by 74.4% during the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 16,595 shares of the company's stock worth $6,235,000 after purchasing an additional 7,078 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.63% of the company's stock.

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.