Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Decreases Stock Holdings in Kirby Corporation $KEX

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System decreased its holdings in shares of Kirby Corporation (NYSE:KEX) by 1.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,800 shares of the shipping company’s stock after selling 300 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Kirby were worth $1,792,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Brooklyn Investment Group raised its stake in Kirby by 40.7% during the first quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 394 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its stake in shares of Kirby by 0.3% in the first quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 36,597 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $3,697,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Kirby by 49.4% in the second quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 366 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Kirby by 21.9% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 819 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $93,000 after acquiring an additional 147 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of Kirby by 28.7% in the first quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 668 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 149 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

KEX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Kirby from $122.00 to $109.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Bank of America dropped their target price on Kirby from $110.00 to $107.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Kirby from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Kirby in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on shares of Kirby in a report on Monday, September 22nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $91.00 price target on the stock. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $113.40.

Kirby Stock Down 2.3%

Shares of Kirby stock opened at $79.87 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.74 and a quick ratio of 1.12. Kirby Corporation has a 1 year low of $79.51 and a 1 year high of $132.21. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $90.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $101.47. The stock has a market cap of $4.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.10, a PEG ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 1.00.

Kirby (NYSE:KEX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The shipping company reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.59 by $0.08. Kirby had a net margin of 9.25% and a return on equity of 10.02%. The company had revenue of $855.46 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $851.94 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.43 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Kirby Corporation will post 6.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kirby Company Profile

Kirby Corporation operates domestic tank barges in the United States. Its Marine Transportation segment provides marine transportation service and towing vessel transporting bulk liquid product, as well as operates tank barge throughout the Mississippi River System, on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, coastwise along three United States coasts, and in Alaska and Hawaii.