R Squared Ltd Acquires Shares of 720 Kirby Co. (NYSE:KEX)

R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Kirby Co. (NYSE:KEX) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 720 shares of the shipping company’s stock, valued at approximately $76,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Kirby by 420.0% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 208 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Kirby in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in Kirby in the 3rd quarter worth about $42,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in shares of Kirby during the third quarter worth approximately $52,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Kirby by 75.7% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 659 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $81,000 after acquiring an additional 284 shares in the last quarter. 96.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

KEX has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Kirby from $136.00 to $135.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com lowered Kirby from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $124.40.

Insider Activity at Kirby

In other news, COO Christian G. O’neil sold 15,041 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.00, for a total transaction of $1,955,330.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 7,746 shares in the company, valued at $1,006,980. This represents a 66.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Richard Ross Stewart sold 8,000 shares of Kirby stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.21, for a total transaction of $1,025,680.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 15,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,985,716.48. This trade represents a 34.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 25,354 shares of company stock valued at $3,275,455 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Kirby Trading Down 2.7 %

Shares of NYSE:KEX opened at $109.13 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company has a market capitalization of $6.26 billion, a PE ratio of 20.95, a P/E/G ratio of 0.53 and a beta of 1.21. Kirby Co. has a 12-month low of $78.63 and a 12-month high of $132.21. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $111.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $117.84.

Kirby (NYSE:KEX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The shipping company reported $1.29 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.30 by ($0.01). Kirby had a return on equity of 9.43% and a net margin of 9.37%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Kirby Co. will post 5.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kirby Profile

Kirby Corporation operates domestic tank barges in the United States. Its Marine Transportation segment provides marine transportation service and towing vessel transporting bulk liquid product, as well as operates tank barge throughout the Mississippi River System, on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, coastwise along three United States coasts, and in Alaska and Hawaii.