Kirby Corporation $KEX Shares Sold by HighTower Advisors LLC

HighTower Advisors LLC decreased its stake in shares of Kirby Corporation (NYSE:KEX) by 0.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 19,374 shares of the shipping company’s stock after selling 181 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Kirby were worth $1,957,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Kirby by 0.4% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 132,089 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $13,342,000 after buying an additional 470 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in Kirby by 28.7% during the first quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 668 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $67,000 after buying an additional 149 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Kirby by 5.3% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 77,641 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $7,842,000 after buying an additional 3,924 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Kirby by 53.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 672 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $68,000 after buying an additional 234 shares during the period. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its stake in Kirby by 30.9% during the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 11,075 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $1,119,000 after buying an additional 2,616 shares during the period. 96.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Kirby from $116.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $130.00.

Kirby Price Performance

KEX opened at $100.2850 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $109.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $105.15. The firm has a market cap of $5.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.96, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.01. Kirby Corporation has a twelve month low of $83.94 and a twelve month high of $132.21. The company has a current ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Kirby (NYSE:KEX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The shipping company reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.59 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $855.46 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $851.94 million. Kirby had a net margin of 9.25% and a return on equity of 10.02%. The business’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.43 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Kirby Corporation will post 6.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kirby Company Profile

Kirby Corporation operates domestic tank barges in the United States. Its Marine Transportation segment provides marine transportation service and towing vessel transporting bulk liquid product, as well as operates tank barge throughout the Mississippi River System, on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, coastwise along three United States coasts, and in Alaska and Hawaii.