TCW Group Inc. Acquires 7,082 Shares of Kirby Co. (NYSE:KEX)

TCW Group Inc. raised its holdings in Kirby Co. (NYSE:KEX) by 35.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 27,110 shares of the shipping company’s stock after buying an additional 7,082 shares during the quarter. TCW Group Inc.’s holdings in Kirby were worth $2,868,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in KEX. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Kirby by 420.0% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 208 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Kirby in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new stake in shares of Kirby during the 3rd quarter valued at about $42,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in shares of Kirby during the third quarter valued at about $52,000. Finally, R Squared Ltd bought a new position in Kirby in the fourth quarter worth about $76,000. 96.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on KEX shares. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Kirby from $136.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com lowered Kirby from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $129.25.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kirby

In other news, VP Scott P. Miller sold 1,244 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.61, for a total value of $133,866.84. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 5,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $596,697.45. This represents a 18.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Kirby Trading Down 3.3 %

Shares of NYSE KEX opened at $102.68 on Monday. Kirby Co. has a 1 year low of $85.40 and a 1 year high of $132.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $107.40 and a 200 day moving average of $116.57. The stock has a market cap of $5.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.19.

Kirby (NYSE:KEX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The shipping company reported $1.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.30 by ($0.01). Kirby had a net margin of 8.78% and a return on equity of 9.71%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Kirby Co. will post 6.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kirby Profile

Kirby Corporation operates domestic tank barges in the United States. Its Marine Transportation segment provides marine transportation service and towing vessel transporting bulk liquid product, as well as operates tank barge throughout the Mississippi River System, on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, coastwise along three United States coasts, and in Alaska and Hawaii.