Victory Capital Management Inc. Decreases Stock Position in Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI)

Victory Capital Management Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) by 11.2% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 512,312 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock after selling 64,817 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Levi Strauss & Co. were worth $11,168,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Levi Strauss & Co. during the third quarter valued at $27,000. 272 Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. during the 2nd quarter valued at about $35,000. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $56,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. in the second quarter worth approximately $135,000. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in Levi Strauss & Co. during the second quarter valued at approximately $195,000. 69.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director David A. Friedman sold 25,002 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.00, for a total transaction of $500,040.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 229,176 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,583,520. This represents a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 3.14% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on LEVI. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. from $28.00 to $25.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. TD Cowen decreased their target price on Levi Strauss & Co. from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Levi Strauss & Co. from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $26.00 price target on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Levi Strauss & Co. presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.75.

Levi Strauss & Co. Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:LEVI opened at $15.78 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $18.61 and a 200 day moving average of $19.75. The company has a market cap of $6.26 billion, a PE ratio of 41.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Levi Strauss & Co. has a 12-month low of $14.70 and a 12-month high of $24.34.

Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 2nd. The blue-jean maker reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.55 billion. Levi Strauss & Co. had a return on equity of 24.43% and a net margin of 2.52%. The firm’s revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.28 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Levi Strauss & Co. will post 1.23 EPS for the current year.

Levi Strauss & Co. Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 29th were paid a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 29th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.30%. Levi Strauss & Co.’s payout ratio is 136.85%.

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.