Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) Receives $21.56 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the nine ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $22.33.

A number of brokerages have issued reports on LEVI. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Levi Strauss & Co. from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Levi Strauss & Co. from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Bank of America raised their price objective on Levi Strauss & Co. from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday. OTR Global initiated coverage on Levi Strauss & Co. in a report on Friday, June 14th. They issued a "positive" rating on the stock. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $26.00 price objective on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. in a report on Thursday.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Levi Strauss & Co. news, EVP Harmit J. Singh sold 346,555 shares of Levi Strauss & Co. stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.21, for a total transaction of $7,696,986.55. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 525,337 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,667,734.77. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Harmit J. Singh sold 346,555 shares of Levi Strauss & Co. stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.21, for a total value of $7,696,986.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 525,337 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,667,734.77. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Bradley J. Haas sold 26,959 shares of Levi Strauss & Co. stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.14, for a total value of $542,954.26. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 772,263 shares of company stock worth $17,256,670 in the last three months. 3.14% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Levi Strauss & Co. by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,626,322 shares of the blue-jean maker's stock valued at $117,145,000 after purchasing an additional 610,838 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Levi Strauss & Co. by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,555,997 shares of the blue-jean maker's stock valued at $171,034,000 after purchasing an additional 164,612 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 1,000,000 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in Levi Strauss & Co. by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,913,865 shares of the blue-jean maker's stock valued at $80,310,000 after purchasing an additional 105,924 shares during the period. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Levi Strauss & Co. during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $24,325,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.14% of the company's stock.

Levi Strauss & Co. Price Performance

Shares of LEVI traded down $3.53 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $19.59. 15,492,055 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,447,847. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $22.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $19.28. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. Levi Strauss & Co. has a fifty-two week low of $12.41 and a fifty-two week high of $24.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.80 billion, a PE ratio of 63.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.19.

Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, June 26th. The blue-jean maker reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.05. Levi Strauss & Co. had a return on equity of 20.68% and a net margin of 2.05%. The firm had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.45 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.04 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Levi Strauss & Co. will post 1.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Levi Strauss & Co. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 9th were issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 8th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.45%. Levi Strauss & Co.'s dividend payout ratio is presently 154.84%.

Levi Strauss & Co. Company Profile

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.