AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO) Stake Decreased by Zimmer Partners LP

Zimmer Partners LP lessened its holdings in shares of AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO) by 29.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,900 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,600 shares during the period. Zimmer Partners LP’s holdings in AutoZone were worth $12,488,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AutoZone by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. now owns 61 shares of the company’s stock valued at $195,000 after buying an additional 3 shares during the last quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of AutoZone by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 152 shares of the company’s stock valued at $487,000 after buying an additional 3 shares during the last quarter. PDS Planning Inc raised its holdings in shares of AutoZone by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 132 shares of the company’s stock valued at $423,000 after buying an additional 3 shares during the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AutoZone by 42.9% during the fourth quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 10 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 3 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Advisory Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of AutoZone by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 371 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,188,000 after acquiring an additional 3 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.74% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AZO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of AutoZone from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $4,600.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. DA Davidson upgraded shares of AutoZone from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $3,500.00 to $4,192.00 in a research note on Friday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of AutoZone from $3,700.00 to $3,850.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Roth Capital set a $3,763.00 price objective on shares of AutoZone in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of AutoZone from $3,525.00 to $3,700.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $3,837.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AutoZone news, CEO Philip B. Daniele sold 2,000 shares of AutoZone stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3,800.01, for a total transaction of $7,600,020.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $619,401.63. This trade represents a 92.46% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Dennis W. Leriche sold 1,575 shares of AutoZone stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3,600.00, for a total transaction of $5,670,000.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 417 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,501,200. This trade represents a 79.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 11,521 shares of company stock worth $42,177,331. Corporate insiders own 2.10% of the company’s stock.

AutoZone Stock Performance

NYSE AZO opened at $3,877.00 on Tuesday. AutoZone, Inc. has a twelve month low of $2,728.97 and a twelve month high of $3,916.81. The stock has a market cap of $65.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.90, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.44. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $3,664.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $3,429.72.

AutoZone (NYSE:AZO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 4th. The company reported $28.29 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $29.11 by ($0.82). AutoZone had a negative return on equity of 53.89% and a net margin of 14.18%. The firm had revenue of $3.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.98 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that AutoZone, Inc. will post 152.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AutoZone Profile

AutoZone, Inc retails and distributes automotive replacement parts and accessories in the United States, Mexico, and Brazil. The company provides various products for cars, sport utility vehicles, vans, and light trucks, including new and remanufactured automotive hard parts, maintenance items, accessories, and non-automotive products.