Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) Reaches New 52-Week High Following Analyst Upgrade

Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on the stock from $451.00 to $454.00. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft currently has a buy rating on the stock. Casey’s General Stores traded as high as $415.00 and last traded at $413.93, with a volume of 12406 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $396.90.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on CASY. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $410.00 price objective on shares of Casey’s General Stores in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Casey’s General Stores from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $300.00 to $337.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Northcoast Research raised shares of Casey’s General Stores from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $410.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Casey’s General Stores from $393.00 to $403.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Casey’s General Stores from $435.00 to $440.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Casey’s General Stores currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $408.25.

Insider Activity at Casey’s General Stores

In other news, insider Thomas P. Brennan, Jr. sold 3,000 shares of Casey’s General Stores stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $380.24, for a total transaction of $1,140,720.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 9,044 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,438,890.56. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Casey’s General Stores news, CEO Darren M. Rebelez sold 13,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $374.54, for a total transaction of $5,056,290.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 73,838 shares in the company, valued at $27,655,284.52. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Thomas P. Brennan, Jr. sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $380.24, for a total value of $1,140,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 9,044 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,438,890.56. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Casey’s General Stores

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Casey’s General Stores in the 1st quarter valued at $794,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in shares of Casey’s General Stores by 2.0% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 21,919 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,976,000 after acquiring an additional 437 shares during the last quarter. Bailard Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Casey’s General Stores in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,021,000. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in Casey’s General Stores during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,183,000. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in Casey’s General Stores by 255.8% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 9,291 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,959,000 after purchasing an additional 6,680 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.63% of the company’s stock.

Casey’s General Stores Trading Up 3.1 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a current ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market cap of $15.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.87 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $379.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $364.67.

Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The company reported $4.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.54 by $0.29. Casey’s General Stores had a return on equity of 17.07% and a net margin of 3.40%. The business had revenue of $4.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $4.52 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Casey’s General Stores, Inc. will post 14.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Casey’s General Stores Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 1st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Casey’s General Stores’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 14.56%.

Casey’s General Stores Company Profile

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.