Capital Investment Advisors LLC Buys 46 Shares of AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO)

Capital Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO) by 51.7% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 135 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in AutoZone were worth $515,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of AutoZone in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Flagship Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of AutoZone in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Harbour Investments Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AutoZone by 42.9% in the 4th quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 10 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 3 shares in the last quarter. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in AutoZone in the 4th quarter valued at about $45,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lifted its stake in AutoZone by 750.0% in the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 17 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.74% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Richard Craig Smith sold 2,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,610.00, for a total transaction of $10,288,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 2,924 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,555,640. This trade represents a 49.36% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Philip B. Daniele sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,800.01, for a total value of $7,600,020.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $619,401.63. This represents a 92.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 12,262 shares of company stock valued at $45,194,187 in the last three months. Insiders own 2.10% of the company’s stock.

AutoZone Stock Performance

Shares of AZO opened at $3,707.84 on Wednesday. AutoZone, Inc. has a 52 week low of $2,769.00 and a 52 week high of $3,916.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $62.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.77, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.40. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $3,689.06 and a 200-day moving average of $3,498.68.

AutoZone (NYSE:AZO) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 27th. The company reported $35.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $37.07 by ($1.71). The company had revenue of $4.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.41 billion. AutoZone had a negative return on equity of 53.89% and a net margin of 14.18%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $36.69 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that AutoZone, Inc. will post 152.94 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AZO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Argus downgraded shares of AutoZone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Raymond James reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of AutoZone in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $3,700.00 target price on shares of AutoZone in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of AutoZone from $3,600.00 to $3,740.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Roth Capital set a $4,135.00 target price on shares of AutoZone and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AutoZone has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $4,072.24.

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.