Brandes Investment Partners LP Has $950,000 Stake in Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI)

Brandes Investment Partners LP boosted its stake in Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) by 11.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 54,892 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock after buying an additional 5,665 shares during the period. Brandes Investment Partners LP’s holdings in Levi Strauss & Co. were worth $950,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Levi Strauss & Co. by 44.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,420,007 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock worth $205,356,000 after purchasing an additional 2,907,099 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Levi Strauss & Co. by 119.8% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,541,784 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock worth $26,858,000 after purchasing an additional 840,251 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in Levi Strauss & Co. by 59.4% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,555,382 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock worth $33,907,000 after purchasing an additional 579,460 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Levi Strauss & Co. by 19.2% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 946,998 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock worth $16,383,000 after purchasing an additional 152,590 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Levi Strauss & Co. in the fourth quarter worth $2,450,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.14% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Levi Strauss & Co. news, Director David A. Friedman sold 4,166 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.44, for a total value of $76,821.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 100,012 shares in the company, valued at $1,844,221.28. This represents a 4.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 3.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Levi Strauss & Co. from $20.00 to $17.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Levi Strauss & Co. from $21.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Levi Strauss & Co. from $18.00 to $17.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup dropped their target price on Levi Strauss & Co. from $21.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group dropped their target price on Levi Strauss & Co. from $26.00 to $23.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.27.

Levi Strauss & Co. Trading Up 3.3 %

NYSE LEVI opened at $16.11 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $17.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $18.05. The company has a market capitalization of $6.38 billion, a PE ratio of 30.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. Levi Strauss & Co. has a 12 month low of $15.51 and a 12 month high of $24.34.

Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The blue-jean maker reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.02. Levi Strauss & Co. had a return on equity of 25.88% and a net margin of 3.32%. Research analysts forecast that Levi Strauss & Co. will post 1.27 EPS for the current year.

Levi Strauss & Co. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 12th were issued a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 12th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.23%. Levi Strauss & Co.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 100.00%.

About Levi Strauss & Co.

Levi Strauss & Co engages in the design, marketing, and sale of apparel products. The company offers jeans, casual and dress pants, tops, shorts, skirts, jackets, footwear, and related accessories. It operates through the following geographical segments: Americas, Europe, and Asia. The company was founded by Levi Strauss in 1853 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.