American Century Companies Inc. Sells 1,396,804 Shares of Levi Strauss & Co. $LEVI

American Century Companies Inc. lessened its stake in Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) by 86.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 211,449 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock after selling 1,396,804 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned 0.05% of Levi Strauss & Co. worth $3,296,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd bought a new stake in Levi Strauss & Co. in the 1st quarter valued at $81,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. in the 1st quarter valued at about $3,259,000. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. in the first quarter valued at about $158,000. Entropy Technologies LP boosted its position in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. by 33.4% during the first quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 39,428 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock worth $615,000 after buying an additional 9,880 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. during the first quarter worth about $1,642,000. Institutional investors own 69.14% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LEVI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America lifted their target price on Levi Strauss & Co. from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Telsey Advisory Group raised their target price on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. from $20.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Levi Strauss & Co. presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $23.45.

Levi Strauss & Co. Price Performance

NYSE:LEVI opened at $22.38 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.85 billion, a PE ratio of 21.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.21. Levi Strauss & Co. has a 1-year low of $12.17 and a 1-year high of $22.61. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $20.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $17.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 10th. The blue-jean maker reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.13 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.37 billion. Levi Strauss & Co. had a net margin of 6.40% and a return on equity of 28.75%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.16 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Levi Strauss & Co. will post 1.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Levi Strauss & Co. Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 24th were paid a $0.14 dividend. This is an increase from Levi Strauss & Co.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 24th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. Levi Strauss & Co.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.90%.

About Levi Strauss & Co.

Levi Strauss & Co engages in the design, marketing, and sale of apparel products. The company offers jeans, casual and dress pants, tops, shorts, skirts, jackets, footwear, and related accessories. It operates through the following geographical segments: Americas, Europe, and Asia. The company was founded by Levi Strauss in 1853 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.