Royal Bank of Canada Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) Stock

Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) had its target price lifted by research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $403.00 to $428.00 in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “sector perform” rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective points to a potential upside of 3.28% from the company’s current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Casey’s General Stores from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $300.00 to $337.00 in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Melius Research started coverage on shares of Casey’s General Stores in a report on Monday, September 23rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $435.00 price target for the company. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Casey’s General Stores from $435.00 to $440.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com raised shares of Casey’s General Stores from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Gordon Haskett assumed coverage on shares of Casey’s General Stores in a research report on Monday, November 4th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $400.00 price objective for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $410.33.

Casey’s General Stores Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CASY traded down $3.71 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $414.40. The stock had a trading volume of 50,474 shares, compared to its average volume of 264,588. Casey’s General Stores has a 1-year low of $266.56 and a 1-year high of $435.60. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $400.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $379.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.16 and a beta of 0.80.

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

Insider Transactions at Casey’s General Stores

In other Casey’s General Stores news, Director Mike Spanos purchased 267 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $376.18 per share, for a total transaction of $100,440.06. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,594 shares in the company, valued at $975,810.92. This represents a 11.47 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.56% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Private Trust Co. NA grew its holdings in Casey’s General Stores by 1.3% during the third quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 2,072 shares of the company’s stock valued at $778,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the period. AdvisorNet Financial Inc grew its holdings in Casey’s General Stores by 10.1% during the second quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 317 shares of the company’s stock valued at $121,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. V Square Quantitative Management LLC grew its holdings in Casey’s General Stores by 22.5% during the third quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 158 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. Verus Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in Casey’s General Stores by 3.1% during the third quarter. Verus Capital Partners LLC now owns 991 shares of the company’s stock valued at $372,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the period. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in Casey’s General Stores by 3.3% during the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,078 shares of the company’s stock valued at $405,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.63% 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.