King Luther Capital Management Corp Cuts Position in Kirby Corporation $KEX

King Luther Capital Management Corp trimmed its position in Kirby Corporation (NYSE:KEX) by 4.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,447,268 shares of the shipping company’s stock after selling 62,185 shares during the quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp owned approximately 2.58% of Kirby worth $164,135,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Kirby by 0.4% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 132,089 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $13,342,000 after buying an additional 470 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Kirby by 5.3% in the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 77,641 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $7,842,000 after purchasing an additional 3,924 shares during the period. TCW Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Kirby by 2.6% in the first quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 27,815 shares of the shipping company’s stock valued at $2,810,000 after buying an additional 705 shares during the last quarter. American Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Kirby by 295.5% during the first quarter. American Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 41,845 shares of the shipping company’s stock worth $4,227,000 after buying an additional 31,265 shares during the period. Finally, Blueshift Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Kirby during the first quarter worth about $385,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on KEX shares. Citigroup raised Kirby from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $110.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $125.00 price target on shares of Kirby in a report on Thursday, September 18th. Zacks Research raised shares of Kirby from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Kirby in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Kirby from $110.00 to $107.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Kirby has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $123.40.

Kirby Trading Up 1.4%

Shares of KEX stock opened at $107.71 on Friday. Kirby Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $79.51 and a fifty-two week high of $132.21. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $88.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $101.23. The stock has a market cap of $6.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.05.

Kirby (NYSE:KEX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The shipping company reported $1.65 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.05. Kirby had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 10.06%. The firm had revenue of $871.16 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $843.29 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.55 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast 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.