Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY) to Issue $0.50 Quarterly Dividend

Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, December 9th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share on Monday, February 17th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.48%.

Casey’s General Stores has increased its dividend by an average of 8.2% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 24 consecutive years. Casey’s General Stores has a dividend payout ratio of 12.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Casey’s General Stores to earn $15.55 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 12.9%.

Casey’s General Stores Price Performance

Shares of CASY stock traded down $4.16 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $418.11. The company had a trading volume of 472,465 shares, compared to its average volume of 194,616. The company has a market capitalization of $15.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.73 and a beta of 0.80. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $399.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $379.10. Casey’s General Stores has a 52-week low of $266.56 and a 52-week high of $435.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.44.

Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, December 9th. The company reported $4.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.29 by $0.56. The business had revenue of $3.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. Casey’s General Stores had a return on equity of 17.07% and a net margin of 3.40%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $4.24 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Casey’s General Stores will post 14.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CASY has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $410.00 price objective on shares of Casey’s General Stores in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. StockNews.com raised shares of Casey’s General Stores from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Gordon Haskett assumed coverage on Casey’s General Stores in a research report on Monday, November 4th. They set a “hold” rating and a $400.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Casey’s General Stores from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $300.00 to $337.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Casey’s General Stores from $415.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $408.25.

Insider Activity

In other Casey’s General Stores news, Director Mike Spanos acquired 267 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $376.18 per share, for a total transaction of $100,440.06. Following the purchase, the director now owns 2,594 shares in the company, valued at approximately $975,810.92. The trade was a 11.47 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

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.