Bank of America Increases Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) Price Target to $22.00

Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) had its target price upped by equities researchers at Bank of America from $19.00 to $22.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “neutral” rating on the blue-jean maker’s stock. Bank of America‘s target price would suggest a potential upside of 13.81% from the company’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Telsey Advisory Group reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $26.00 price objective on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. in a research note on Thursday. OTR Global began coverage on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. in a research note on Friday, June 14th. They set a “positive” rating for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. from $17.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Levi Strauss & Co. presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.33.

Levi Strauss & Co. Trading Down 16.4 %

NYSE:LEVI traded down $3.79 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $19.33. 9,698,969 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,400,807. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $22.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $19.28. Levi Strauss & Co. has a one year low of $12.41 and a one year high of $24.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.19.

Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, June 26th. The blue-jean maker reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.05. Levi Strauss & Co. had a net margin of 2.05% and a return on equity of 20.68%. The company had revenue of $1.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.45 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.04 EPS. Levi Strauss & Co.’s revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Levi Strauss & Co. will post 1.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Levi Strauss & Co.

In related news, major shareholder Bradley J. Haas sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.05, for a total transaction of $2,405,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Bradley J. Haas sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.05, for a total transaction of $2,405,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director David A. Friedman sold 16,666 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.94, for a total value of $398,984.04. Following the transaction, the director now owns 166,676 shares in the company, valued at $3,990,223.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 772,263 shares of company stock worth $17,256,670. Corporate insiders own 3.14% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Levi Strauss & Co.

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,626,322 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock valued at $117,145,000 after buying an additional 610,838 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. by 2.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,555,997 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock valued at $171,034,000 after purchasing an additional 164,612 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. by 17.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 6,625,378 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock valued at $109,584,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000,000 shares during the period. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Levi Strauss & Co. in the 4th quarter valued at $24,325,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Levi Strauss & Co. by 20.4% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,432,143 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock valued at $23,688,000 after buying an additional 242,882 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.14% of the company’s stock.

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.