Benchmark Reaffirms Buy Rating for Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY)

Benchmark restated their buy rating on shares of Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $410.00 price target on the stock.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Royal Bank of Canada restated a sector perform rating and issued a $393.00 target price on shares of Casey’s General Stores in a report on Monday, July 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Casey’s General Stores from $340.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, June 13th. StockNews.com cut shares of Casey’s General Stores from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report on Saturday, August 3rd. Northcoast Research upgraded shares of Casey’s General Stores from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $410.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Casey’s General Stores from $410.00 to $435.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Casey’s General Stores has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $401.20.

Casey’s General Stores Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CASY opened at $373.82 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $13.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.80. Casey’s General Stores has a twelve month low of $238.44 and a twelve month high of $401.07. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $373.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $342.17. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The company reported $4.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.54 by $0.29. The business 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 3.38% and a return on equity of 17.25%. The business’s revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $4.52 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Casey’s General Stores will post 14.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Casey’s General Stores Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 1st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. Casey’s General Stores’s dividend payout ratio is currently 14.89%.

Institutional Trading of Casey’s General Stores

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CASY. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Casey’s General Stores during the fourth quarter worth $115,799,000. Congress Asset Management Co. MA purchased a new position in Casey’s General Stores during the 1st quarter valued at about $112,081,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. grew its position in Casey’s General Stores by 561.7% in the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 273,168 shares of the company’s stock valued at $75,050,000 after acquiring an additional 231,887 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in Casey’s General Stores by 3,846.1% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 172,320 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,750,000 after purchasing an additional 176,920 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Casey’s General Stores by 113.0% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 291,838 shares of the company’s stock worth $92,936,000 after purchasing an additional 154,803 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.63% of the company’s stock.

About Casey’s General Stores

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.