Alps Advisors Inc. Invests $789,000 in Lamb Weston $LW

Alps Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Lamb Weston (NYSE:LW) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 13,580 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock, valued at approximately $789,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC acquired a new position in shares of Lamb Weston in the second quarter valued at about $400,000. Liberty One Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Lamb Weston by 86.1% during the third quarter. Liberty One Investment Management LLC now owns 960,639 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $55,859,000 after purchasing an additional 444,328 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Lamb Weston by 29.4% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 912,668 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $47,322,000 after buying an additional 207,210 shares during the last quarter. Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new stake in Lamb Weston in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,611,000. Finally, Douglas Lane & Associates LLC increased its holdings in Lamb Weston by 19.9% in the 3rd quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 1,279,345 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $74,304,000 after buying an additional 212,504 shares during the period. 89.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Jan Eli B. Craps acquired 50,000 shares of Lamb Weston stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 6th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $48.65 per share, for a total transaction of $2,432,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 300,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,595,000. This represents a 20.00% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on LW shares. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Lamb Weston from $63.00 to $50.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 22nd. TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of Lamb Weston from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 22nd. BNP Paribas Exane set a $48.00 price objective on Lamb Weston in a research note on Monday, December 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $46.00 price objective on shares of Lamb Weston in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Lamb Weston from $62.00 to $50.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.00.

Lamb Weston Price Performance

LW stock opened at $50.28 on Friday. Lamb Weston has a 52-week low of $39.79 and a 52-week high of $67.07. The company has a quick ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.08. The stock has a market cap of $6.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.50 and a beta of 0.45. The business has a fifty day moving average of $47.24 and a two-hundred day moving average of $54.67.

Lamb Weston (NYSE:LW) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, December 19th. The specialty retailer reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by $0.01. Lamb Weston had a net margin of 6.06% and a return on equity of 27.71%. The business had revenue of $1.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.66 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Lamb Weston will post 3.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Lamb Weston Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 30th will be given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is a boost from Lamb Weston’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.37. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 30th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. Lamb Weston’s dividend payout ratio is 54.68%.

Lamb Weston Company Profile

Lamb Weston, traded on the NYSE under the symbol LW, is a leading global processor and supplier of frozen potato products. The company’s portfolio includes a variety of potato-based items such as French fries, potato wedges, hash browns and specialty cuts tailored to the foodservice and retail grocery channels. Lamb Weston serves quick-service restaurants, full-service operators, grocery chains and food distributors, offering customized product formats, packaging solutions and seasoning options to meet evolving customer demands.

Founded in 1950 and headquartered in Eagle, Idaho, Lamb Weston has grown from a regional processor into one of the world’s largest producers of frozen potato products.