Casey's General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) Earns Overweight Rating from Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company

Key Points

• Wells Fargo & Company has initiated coverage on Casey's General Stores with an "overweight" rating and a price target of $610.00, suggesting an 8.12% upside from the stock's previous close.
• Casey's General Stores reported earnings of $5.77 per share, surpassing estimates, and its quarterly revenue rose by 11.5% year-over-year to $4.57 billion.
• Institutional ownership of Casey's stock is significant, with over 85% of shares held by hedge funds and institutional investors, indicating strong market confidence.

Investment analysts at Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of Casey's General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY - Get Free Report) in a report released on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage set an "overweight" rating and a $610.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company's target price would indicate a potential upside of 8.12% from the stock's previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Casey's General Stores from $450.00 to $490.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Casey's General Stores from $515.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Casey's General Stores from $468.00 to $542.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Casey's General Stores from $550.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Casey's General Stores from $560.00 to $580.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $536.10.

Casey's General Stores Price Performance

Casey's General Stores stock opened at $564.17 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $20.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.21 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $532.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $496.02. Casey's General Stores has a 12-month low of $372.08 and a 12-month high of $572.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65.

Casey's General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, September 8th. The company reported $5.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.02 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $4.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.47 billion. Casey's General Stores had a net margin of 3.54% and a return on equity of 16.73%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $4.83 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Casey's General Stores will post 13.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Casey's General Stores news, insider Chad Michael Frazell sold 3,487 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $555.40, for a total transaction of $1,936,679.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 7,993 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,439,312.20. This represents a 30.37% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Casey's General Stores

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Casey's General Stores by 190.6% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,244,311 shares of the company's stock valued at $540,081,000 after acquiring an additional 816,110 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Casey's General Stores by 42.0% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,036,426 shares of the company's stock valued at $449,851,000 after acquiring an additional 306,628 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its holdings in Casey's General Stores by 129.1% during the third quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 890,884 shares of the company's stock worth $503,635,000 after purchasing an additional 502,104 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Casey's General Stores by 0.3% during the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 708,893 shares of the company's stock worth $361,727,000 after purchasing an additional 2,467 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Casey's General Stores by 8.9% during the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 649,815 shares of the company's stock worth $282,045,000 after purchasing an additional 52,939 shares in the last quarter. 85.63% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Casey's General Stores

Casey's General Stores, Inc engages in the provision of management and operation of convenience stores and gasoline stations. It provides self-service gasoline, a wide selection of grocery items, and an array of freshly prepared food items. The firm offers food, beverages, tobacco products, health and beauty aids, automotive products, and other non-food items.