Wells Fargo & Company Boosts Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) Price Target to $285.00

Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) had its price objective boosted by Wells Fargo & Company from $260.00 to $285.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the stock.

CASY has been the subject of several other research reports. SpectralCast reaffirmed a maintains rating on shares of Casey’s General Stores in a research note on Thursday, June 8th. Stephens reaffirmed an overweight rating and set a $280.00 target price on shares of Casey’s General Stores in a research note on Tuesday, September 12th. Credit Suisse Group raised Casey’s General Stores from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and raised their target price for the company from $235.00 to $285.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 18th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Casey’s General Stores from $275.00 to $284.00 and gave the company a sector perform rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 12th. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $275.00 target price on shares of Casey’s General Stores in a research note on Tuesday, September 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $273.11.

Casey’s General Stores Price Performance

Shares of CASY opened at $278.84 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $10.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.58 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $249.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $232.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.59. Casey’s General Stores has a 12 month low of $197.22 and a 12 month high of $282.00.

Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 12th. The company reported $4.52 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.36 by $1.16. Casey’s General Stores had a return on equity of 17.10% and a net margin of 3.19%. The firm had revenue of $3.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.90 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $4.09 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 13.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Casey’s General Stores will post 10.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Casey’s General Stores Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 31st. Casey’s General Stores’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.93%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Casey’s General Stores

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Casey’s General Stores by 0.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,734,566 shares of the company’s stock valued at $756,324,000 after purchasing an additional 25,687 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in Casey’s General Stores by 1.1% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,324,849 shares of the company’s stock valued at $810,864,000 after purchasing an additional 37,234 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Casey’s General Stores by 4.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,432,889 shares of the company’s stock worth $290,189,000 after acquiring an additional 60,487 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Casey’s General Stores by 3.7% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,308,988 shares of the company’s stock worth $319,236,000 after acquiring an additional 46,790 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Casey’s General Stores by 430.5% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,141,475 shares of the company’s stock worth $256,090,000 after acquiring an additional 926,324 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.43% 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.