Analysts Set Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY) Target Price at $308.44

Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $312.63.

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Casey’s General Stores from $305.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. StockNews.com cut Casey’s General Stores from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $312.00 target price on shares of Casey’s General Stores in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Casey’s General Stores from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their target price on Casey’s General Stores from $350.00 to $345.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Casey’s General Stores

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake 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 worth $756,324,000 after purchasing an additional 25,687 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in Casey’s General Stores by 2.1% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,287,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $711,637,000 after purchasing an additional 68,495 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Casey’s General Stores by 7.7% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,585,359 shares of the company’s stock worth $430,458,000 after acquiring an additional 113,437 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in 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. Finally, Vontobel Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Casey’s General Stores by 4.3% in the first quarter. Vontobel Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,023,974 shares of the company’s stock worth $233,582,000 after acquiring an additional 42,589 shares in the last quarter. 85.63% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Casey’s General Stores Stock Performance

Shares of CASY stock opened at $309.40 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a current ratio of 0.89. Casey’s General Stores has a fifty-two week low of $212.50 and a fifty-two week high of $324.40. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $304.37 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $285.78. The company has a market capitalization of $11.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.59, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.83.

Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 12th. The company reported $2.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.20 by $0.13. Casey’s General Stores had a return on equity of 16.70% and a net margin of 3.23%. The firm had revenue of $3.33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.51 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.36 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Casey’s General Stores will post 12.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Casey’s General Stores Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be paid a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.56%. Casey’s General Stores’s payout ratio is 13.67%.

Casey’s General Stores Company Profile

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.