Jefferies Financial Group Cuts Lamb Weston (NYSE:LW) Price Target to $75.00

Lamb Weston (NYSE:LW) had its price target cut by Jefferies Financial Group from $80.00 to $75.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the specialty retailer’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on LW. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Lamb Weston from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and set a $57.00 price target on shares of Lamb Weston in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Lamb Weston from $68.00 to $63.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Lamb Weston to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Citigroup lowered shares of Lamb Weston from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $90.00 to $68.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $71.27.

Lamb Weston Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of LW opened at $54.62 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 0.48. Lamb Weston has a 1 year low of $47.90 and a 1 year high of $89.51. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $54.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $65.03.

Lamb Weston (NYSE:LW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The specialty retailer reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.23. Lamb Weston had a net margin of 5.80% and a return on equity of 27.82%. The company had revenue of $1.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.20 earnings per share. Lamb Weston’s revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Lamb Weston will post 3.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lamb Weston Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.37 per share. This represents a $1.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 2nd. Lamb Weston’s dividend payout ratio is presently 58.04%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Naples Global Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Lamb Weston by 6.9% in the 1st quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC now owns 21,035 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,121,000 after buying an additional 1,364 shares during the period. Romano Brothers AND Company lifted its stake in Lamb Weston by 1.4% in the first quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company now owns 15,260 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $813,000 after acquiring an additional 218 shares during the period. Whipplewood Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Lamb Weston by 3,466.7% during the 1st quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 535 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 520 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. grew its holdings in Lamb Weston by 130,125.0% during the 1st quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,209 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $277,000 after acquiring an additional 5,205 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Douglas Lane & Associates LLC increased its position in Lamb Weston by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 1,066,915 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $56,867,000 after purchasing an additional 45,735 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.56% of the company’s stock.

About Lamb Weston

Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc produces, distributes, and markets frozen potato products worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Global, Foodservice, Retail, and Other. It offers frozen potatoes, commercial ingredients, and appetizers under the Lamb Weston brand, as well as under various customer labels.