Short Interest in Lancaster Colony Co. (NASDAQ:LANC) Drops By 5.9%

Lancaster Colony Co. (NASDAQ:LANC – Get Rating) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of December. As of December 30th, there was short interest totalling 706,000 shares, a decrease of 5.9% from the December 15th total of 750,200 shares. Currently, 3.8% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 199,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.5 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com started coverage on Lancaster Colony in a research note on Wednesday, October 12th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $140.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lancaster Colony

In related news, CEO David Alan Ciesinski sold 7,926 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.01, for a total transaction of $1,664,539.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 62,183 shares in the company, valued at $13,059,051.83. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, insider Kristin Bird sold 1,535 shares of Lancaster Colony stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.73, for a total transaction of $305,050.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 3,194 shares in the company, valued at approximately $634,743.62. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David Alan Ciesinski sold 7,926 shares of Lancaster Colony stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.01, for a total value of $1,664,539.26. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 62,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,059,051.83. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 11,686 shares of company stock valued at $2,434,971. 29.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lancaster Colony

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of LANC. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Lancaster Colony by 20.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,443,913 shares of the company’s stock valued at $367,271,000 after acquiring an additional 410,104 shares in the last quarter. London Co. of Virginia grew its holdings in shares of Lancaster Colony by 223.7% in the second quarter. London Co. of Virginia now owns 406,977 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,411,000 after acquiring an additional 281,260 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Lancaster Colony by 5.6% in the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,423,293 shares of the company’s stock valued at $364,172,000 after acquiring an additional 129,054 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Lancaster Colony in the second quarter valued at approximately $12,337,000. Finally, Leeward Investments LLC MA bought a new position in Lancaster Colony during the second quarter valued at $9,712,000. 60.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Lancaster Colony Trading Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ LANC opened at $192.59 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $200.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $173.34. Lancaster Colony has a 12 month low of $116.85 and a 12 month high of $214.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.31 billion, a PE ratio of 55.03 and a beta of 0.23.

Lancaster Colony (NASDAQ:LANC – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 3rd. The company reported $1.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.14. Lancaster Colony had a return on equity of 14.40% and a net margin of 5.64%. The company had revenue of $425.54 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $422.04 million. As a group, analysts forecast that Lancaster Colony will post 5.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lancaster Colony Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 30th. Investors of record on Monday, December 5th were paid a dividend of $0.85 per share. This is an increase from Lancaster Colony’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.77%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 2nd. Lancaster Colony’s dividend payout ratio is 97.14%.

About Lancaster Colony

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Lancaster Colony Corp. engages in the manufacture and sale of specialty food products. It operates through the following segments: Retail and Foodservice. The Retail and Foodservice segments both focus on the manufacture and sale of frozen breads, refrigerated dressings, dips and shelf-stable dressings, and croutons under the brand names New York BRAND Bakery, Sister Schubert’s, Marzetti Frozen Pasta, and Flatout.