Everence Capital Management Inc. Invests $226,000 in Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY)

Everence Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $226,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CASY. Soros Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Casey’s General Stores by 1,825.6% during the 3rd quarter. Soros Capital Management LLC now owns 27,632 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,382,000 after acquiring an additional 26,197 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in Casey’s General Stores by 9.9% during the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 14,725 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,532,000 after purchasing an additional 1,332 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC bought a new position in shares of Casey’s General Stores in the third quarter valued at about $23,294,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Casey’s General Stores by 18.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 758,804 shares of the company’s stock worth $285,090,000 after buying an additional 119,350 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Casey’s General Stores by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,046,830 shares of the company’s stock worth $393,305,000 after buying an additional 38,226 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.63% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on CASY shares. Melius Research initiated coverage on shares of Casey’s General Stores in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $435.00 price objective for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Casey’s General Stores from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $300.00 to $337.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Casey’s General Stores from $451.00 to $454.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Gordon Haskett initiated coverage on shares of Casey’s General Stores in a research report on Monday, November 4th. They set a “hold” rating and a $400.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Casey’s General Stores from $403.00 to $428.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $424.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Mike Spanos acquired 500 shares of Casey’s General Stores stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were acquired at an average price of $396.76 per share, for a total transaction of $198,380.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,097 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,228,765.72. The trade was a 19.25 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Katrina S. Lindsey sold 450 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $427.13, for a total value of $192,208.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 2,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $959,761.11. This represents a 16.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.56% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Casey’s General Stores Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of CASY opened at $390.84 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $409.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $388.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.44. Casey’s General Stores, Inc. has a one year low of $268.07 and a one year high of $439.68. The company has a market cap of $14.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.24 and a beta of 0.82.

Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, December 9th. The company reported $4.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.29 by $0.56. Casey’s General Stores had a return on equity of 17.17% and a net margin of 3.57%. The business had revenue of $3.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $4.24 EPS. Casey’s General Stores’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Casey’s General Stores, Inc. will post 14.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Casey’s General Stores Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 17th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. Casey’s General Stores’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.94%.

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.