AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO) Shares Bought by Empirical Finance LLC

Empirical Finance LLC lifted its position in shares of AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO) by 2.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 650 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 13 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in AutoZone were worth $2,478,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of AutoZone by 435,031.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 770,182 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,936,535,000 after purchasing an additional 770,005 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in AutoZone by 82.6% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 170,216 shares of the company’s stock valued at $545,033,000 after buying an additional 77,015 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in AutoZone by 22.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 204,748 shares of the company’s stock valued at $655,603,000 after buying an additional 36,916 shares during the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in AutoZone during the fourth quarter worth $95,480,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG increased its position in AutoZone by 14.6% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 204,822 shares of the company’s stock worth $655,840,000 after buying an additional 26,036 shares in the last quarter. 92.74% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AZO. Roth Capital set a $4,135.00 price objective on AutoZone and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Oppenheimer raised shares of AutoZone from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $4,600.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of AutoZone in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. DA Davidson raised their price target on shares of AutoZone from $4,192.00 to $4,850.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of AutoZone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $4,087.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at AutoZone

In other AutoZone news, CFO Jamere Jackson sold 2,612 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,728.05, for a total value of $9,737,666.60. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 427 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,591,877.35. This trade represents a 85.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman William C. Rhodes III sold 27,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3,708.93, for a total value of $101,995,575.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman directly owned 8,546 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,696,515.78. The trade was a 76.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 33,862 shares of company stock valued at $126,058,789 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 2.10% of the company’s stock.

AutoZone Price Performance

AutoZone stock opened at $3,819.20 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $64.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.39. AutoZone, Inc. has a 12 month low of $2,898.57 and a 12 month high of $3,916.81. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $3,711.34 and its 200-day moving average is $3,597.71.

AutoZone (NYSE:AZO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 27th. The company reported $35.36 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $37.07 by ($1.71). AutoZone had a net margin of 13.56% and a negative return on equity of 56.07%. The business had revenue of $4.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.41 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $36.69 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that AutoZone, Inc. will post 152.94 EPS for the current year.

AutoZone Company 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.