Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) Earns Buy Rating from Analysts at Melius Research

Melius Research initiated coverage on shares of Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) in a research report released on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm issued a buy rating and a $435.00 target price on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on CASY. StockNews.com lowered shares of Casey’s General Stores from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report on Saturday, August 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Casey’s General Stores from $420.00 to $444.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Casey’s General Stores from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $410.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Casey’s General Stores from a neutral rating to an underweight rating and raised their price objective for the company from $300.00 to $337.00 in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Casey’s General Stores from $415.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $407.64.

Casey’s General Stores Stock Performance

Shares of CASY stock opened at $377.94 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $374.26 and its 200-day moving average price is $348.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a current ratio of 0.84. Casey’s General Stores has a one year low of $260.13 and a one year high of $401.07. The firm has a market cap of $14.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.80.

Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The company reported $4.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.54 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $4.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.15 billion. Casey’s General Stores had a net margin of 3.40% and a return on equity of 17.07%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $4.52 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Casey’s General Stores will post 14.15 EPS for the current year.

Casey’s General Stores Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 1st. Casey’s General Stores’s payout ratio is currently 14.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Casey’s General Stores news, CEO Darren M. Rebelez sold 13,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 73,838 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,655,284.52. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Thomas P. Brennan, Jr. sold 3,000 shares of Casey’s General Stores stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now owns 9,044 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,438,890.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Darren M. Rebelez sold 13,500 shares of Casey’s General Stores 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 73,838 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,655,284.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Casey’s General Stores

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CASY. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Casey’s General Stores in the first quarter valued at about $30,000. Park Place Capital Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Casey’s General Stores in the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Casey’s General Stores in the first quarter valued at about $32,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Casey’s General Stores in the second quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Casey’s General Stores in the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.63% of the company’s stock.

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.