California Public Employees Retirement System Purchases 325 Shares of Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY)

California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its position in Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY) by 0.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 217,716 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 325 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.59% of Casey’s General Stores worth $59,815,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of CASY. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Casey’s General Stores by 142.8% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 242,923 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,959,000 after purchasing an additional 142,884 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of Casey’s General Stores by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,585,359 shares of the company’s stock valued at $430,458,000 after purchasing an additional 113,437 shares in the last quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC bought a new position in Casey’s General Stores in the third quarter worth about $21,993,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Casey’s General Stores in the fourth quarter worth about $167,570,000. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its holdings in shares of Casey’s General Stores by 26.3% during the 3rd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 191,422 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,975,000 after acquiring an additional 39,896 shares during the period. 85.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Casey’s General Stores from $305.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $312.00 price objective on shares of Casey’s General Stores in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Casey’s General Stores from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Casey’s General Stores from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their price target on Casey’s General Stores from $350.00 to $345.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $312.63.

Casey’s General Stores Price Performance

Shares of Casey’s General Stores stock opened at $317.78 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $11.76 billion, a PE ratio of 25.26, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $307.35 and a 200 day moving average of $287.27. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Casey’s General Stores, Inc. has a 12 month low of $212.50 and a 12 month high of $324.40.

Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, March 12th. The company reported $2.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.20 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $3.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.51 billion. Casey’s General Stores had a net margin of 3.23% and a return on equity of 16.70%. Casey’s General Stores’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.36 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Casey’s General Stores, Inc. will post 12.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Casey’s General Stores Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be issued a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th. 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.