American Century Companies Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI)

American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) by 2,070.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,431,518 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,365,574 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned 0.36% of Levi Strauss & Co. worth $27,600,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in LEVI. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. in the 2nd quarter worth $135,000. nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new position in Levi Strauss & Co. in the second quarter worth about $195,000. Isthmus Partners LLC purchased a new position in Levi Strauss & Co. in the fourth quarter worth about $270,000. BTC Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. during the 1st quarter valued at about $294,000. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in shares of Levi Strauss & Co. by 104.5% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 16,547 shares of the blue-jean maker’s stock valued at $319,000 after purchasing an additional 8,457 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.14% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on LEVI. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Levi Strauss & Co. from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. OTR Global assumed coverage on Levi Strauss & Co. in a research report on Friday, June 14th. They set a “positive” rating on the stock. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Levi Strauss & Co. from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $26.00 price objective on shares of Levi Strauss & Co. in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. 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, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $23.38.

Levi Strauss & Co. Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of LEVI opened at $19.77 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 0.77. Levi Strauss & Co. has a 1 year low of $12.41 and a 1 year high of $24.34. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $18.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $20.16. The firm has a market cap of $7.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.14.

Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, June 26th. The blue-jean maker reported $0.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.45 billion. Levi Strauss & Co. had a net margin of 2.34% and a return on equity of 23.21%. Levi Strauss & Co.’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.04 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Levi Strauss & Co. will post 1.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Levi Strauss & Co. Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 20th. Investors of record on Friday, August 2nd were given a $0.13 dividend. This is an increase from Levi Strauss & Co.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.63%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 2nd. Levi Strauss & Co.’s payout ratio is currently 148.57%.

Insider Activity at Levi Strauss & Co.

In other Levi Strauss & Co. news, Director David A. Friedman sold 4,166 shares of Levi Strauss & Co. stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.37, for a total value of $80,695.42. Following the sale, the director now owns 162,510 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,147,818.70. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, Director David A. Friedman sold 25,002 shares of Levi Strauss & Co. stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.00, for a total value of $500,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 229,176 shares in the company, valued at $4,583,520. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director David A. Friedman sold 4,166 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.37, for a total value of $80,695.42. Following the sale, the director now owns 162,510 shares in the company, valued at $3,147,818.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 37,500 shares of company stock valued at $736,461. Insiders own 3.14% of the company’s stock.

Levi Strauss & Co. 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.