California Public Employees Retirement System Reduces Position in Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LW)

California Public Employees Retirement System decreased its position in Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LW) by 8.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 178,673 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 16,100 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Lamb Weston were worth $11,941,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Lamb Weston by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,646,887 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $1,112,511,000 after purchasing an additional 58,066 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Lamb Weston by 9.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,221,665 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $402,791,000 after buying an additional 549,812 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its position in Lamb Weston by 26.8% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,477,165 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $232,330,000 after buying an additional 735,901 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Lamb Weston by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,388,056 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $218,598,000 after acquiring an additional 24,097 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Lamb Weston in the 4th quarter valued at $96,736,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.56% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LW has been the subject of a number of research reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Lamb Weston to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Lamb Weston from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Barclays lowered their target price on Lamb Weston from $87.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Citigroup downgraded Lamb Weston from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $90.00 to $68.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Lamb Weston from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $73.09.

Lamb Weston Stock Performance

LW opened at $59.11 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $8.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.36, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 0.48. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $55.22 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $65.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26. Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $47.90 and a 52-week high of $89.51.

Lamb Weston (NYSE:LW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 3rd. The specialty retailer reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.23. Lamb Weston had a return on equity of 27.82% and a net margin of 5.80%. The company had revenue of $1.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.50 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.20 EPS. Lamb Weston’s revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. will post 3.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lamb Weston Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Investors of record on Friday, May 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.37 per share. This represents a $1.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 2nd. Lamb Weston’s payout ratio is 58.50%.

Insider Activity at Lamb Weston

In other Lamb Weston news, Director Robert A. Niblock bought 3,000 shares of Lamb Weston stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $60.94 per share, for a total transaction of $182,820.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 26,406 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,609,181.64. This represents a 12.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.72% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Lamb Weston Company Profile

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.