Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Reduces Stake in Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LW)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lowered its position in Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LW – Get Rating) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,005,630 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 31,925 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in Lamb Weston were worth $89,858,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Lamb Weston by 0.9% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,395,925 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,268,717,000 after buying an additional 146,496 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Lamb Weston by 3.4% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,224,012 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $312,971,000 after buying an additional 172,399 shares in the last quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. raised its stake in Lamb Weston by 3.3% in the third quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 2,089,338 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $158,758,000 after buying an additional 66,356 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Lamb Weston by 13.1% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,025,493 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $121,348,000 after buying an additional 235,014 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Lamb Weston by 0.5% in the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 1,662,056 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $128,609,000 after buying an additional 8,685 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LW has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus initiated coverage on shares of Lamb Weston in a research note on Thursday, April 13th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $115.00 price objective for the company. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Lamb Weston from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Lamb Weston from $112.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 10th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Lamb Weston in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Lamb Weston from $115.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $118.40.

Insider Transactions at Lamb Weston

In other news, SVP Sharon L. Miller sold 4,350 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.00, for a total transaction of $500,250.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 49,859 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,733,785. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

Lamb Weston Price Performance

NYSE LW opened at $109.87 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a current ratio of 2.59 and a quick ratio of 1.57. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $107.73 and its 200 day moving average price is $98.24. Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $62.57 and a 1 year high of $115.31. The company has a market cap of $16.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.38, a PEG ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 0.53.

Lamb Weston (NYSE:LW – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 6th. The specialty retailer reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.45. Lamb Weston had a return on equity of 110.40% and a net margin of 11.27%. The firm had revenue of $1.25 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.16 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.73 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 26.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. will post 4.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Lamb Weston Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 5th will be given a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 4th. Lamb Weston’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.95%.

Lamb Weston Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc engages in the production, distribution, and marketing of value-added frozen potato products. It operates through the following business segments: Global, Foodservice, Retail, and Other. The Global segment includes branded and private label frozen potato products sold in North America and international markets.