DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Purchases 20,492 Shares of Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its position in Casey’s General Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:CASY) by 321.7% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 26,862 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 20,492 shares during the quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale’s holdings in Casey’s General Stores were worth $8,531,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CASY. Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Casey’s General Stores by 130.0% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 5,830 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,857,000 after purchasing an additional 3,295 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in Casey’s General Stores by 255.8% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 9,291 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,959,000 after acquiring an additional 6,680 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC acquired a new position in Casey’s General Stores in the 1st quarter worth about $214,000. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Casey’s General Stores in the first quarter valued at about $246,000. Finally, Dynasty Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Casey’s General Stores during the first quarter valued at about $609,000. 85.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Casey’s General Stores Trading Down 2.9 %

Shares of CASY stock traded down $11.17 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $371.93. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 368,462 shares, compared to its average volume of 226,395. The company has a market cap of $13.80 billion, a PE ratio of 27.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a current ratio of 0.87. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $365.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $326.95. Casey’s General Stores, Inc. has a 52 week low of $238.44 and a 52 week high of $401.07.

Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, June 11th. The company reported $2.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.64. The business had revenue of $3.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.47 billion. Casey’s General Stores had a return on equity of 17.25% and a net margin of 3.38%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.49 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Casey’s General Stores, Inc. will post 14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Casey’s General Stores Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 1st will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 1st. This is an increase from Casey’s General Stores’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. Casey’s General Stores’s payout ratio is presently 14.89%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Casey’s General Stores from $340.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $410.00 price target on shares of Casey’s General Stores in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Casey’s General Stores from $410.00 to $435.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $393.00 target price on shares of Casey’s General Stores in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Casey’s General Stores from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $410.22.

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.