Corbyn Investment Management Inc. MD Has $4.57 Million Stock Position in Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI)

Corbyn Investment Management Inc. MD lowered its holdings in Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) by 11.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 237,049 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock after selling 31,744 shares during the quarter. Levi Strauss & Co. accounts for about 1.9% of Corbyn Investment Management Inc. MD’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest position. Corbyn Investment Management Inc. MD owned about 0.06% of Levi Strauss & Co. worth $4,570,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. by 17.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 6,625,378 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock worth $109,584,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000,000 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. by 20.4% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,432,143 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock worth $23,688,000 after purchasing an additional 242,882 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. by 18.7% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,245,542 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock worth $20,601,000 after purchasing an additional 196,270 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,555,997 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock worth $171,034,000 after purchasing an additional 164,612 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bragg Financial Advisors Inc grew its holdings in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. by 44.6% during the 4th quarter. Bragg Financial Advisors Inc now owns 526,334 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock worth $8,706,000 after purchasing an additional 162,423 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.14% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Telsey Advisory Group reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $26.00 price objective on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. in a report on Thursday, June 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Levi Strauss & Co. from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Bank of America raised their target price on Levi Strauss & Co. from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Levi Strauss & Co. from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 24th. Finally, OTR Global began coverage on Levi Strauss & Co. in a research report on Friday, June 14th. They set a “positive” rating for the company. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.38.

Insider Buying and Selling at Levi Strauss & Co.

In other news, Director David A. Friedman sold 4,166 shares of Levi Strauss & Co. stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.23, for a total value of $75,946.18. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 158,344 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,886,611.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In the last quarter, insiders sold 12,498 shares of company stock worth $236,421. 3.14% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Levi Strauss & Co. Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of LEVI opened at $18.61 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $18.54 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $20.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 1.42. Levi Strauss & Co. has a 52-week low of $12.41 and a 52-week high of $24.34. The company has a market cap of $7.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.17, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.14.

Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 26th. The blue-jean maker reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.05. Levi Strauss & Co. had a return on equity of 23.21% and a net margin of 2.34%. The firm had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.45 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.04 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Levi Strauss & Co. will post 1.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Levi Strauss & Co. Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 2nd were given a $0.13 dividend. This is an increase from Levi Strauss & Co.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 2nd. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.79%. Levi Strauss & Co.’s payout ratio is presently 148.57%.

Levi Strauss & Co. Company Profile

Levi Strauss & Co designs, markets, and sells apparels and related accessories for men, women, and children worldwide. The company offers jeans, casual and dress pants, activewears, tops, shorts, skirts, dresses, jumpsuits, shirts, sweaters, jackets, footwear, and related accessories under the Levi's, Dockers, Signature by Levi Strauss & Co, Denizen, and Beyond Yoga brands.