Insider Buying: Limoneira (NASDAQ:LMNR) Director Purchases 3,187 Shares of Stock

Limoneira (NASDAQ:LMNR – Get Rating) Director Scott S. Slater bought 3,187 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 15th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $15.69 per share, with a total value of $50,004.03. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 41,539 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $651,746.91. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Limoneira Price Performance

NASDAQ LMNR traded down $0.65 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $15.46. 93,748 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 58,057. Limoneira has a 52-week low of $10.44 and a 52-week high of $17.05. The company has a market capitalization of $275.67 million, a PE ratio of 13.33, a PEG ratio of 27.00 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $14.44 and its 200-day moving average is $13.36.

Limoneira (NASDAQ:LMNR – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 22nd. The company reported ($0.32) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.11) by ($0.21). Limoneira had a net margin of 11.96% and a negative return on equity of 3.04%. The business had revenue of $39.66 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $32.96 million. Equities analysts forecast that Limoneira will post 0.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Limoneira Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 3rd were issued a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 30th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.94%. Limoneira’s payout ratio is 25.86%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Limoneira

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Gabelli Funds LLC boosted its holdings in Limoneira by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 65,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $867,000 after purchasing an additional 2,800 shares during the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its holdings in shares of Limoneira by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 88,300 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,164,000 after acquiring an additional 6,000 shares during the last quarter. Global Alpha Capital Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Limoneira by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Global Alpha Capital Management Ltd. now owns 2,163,924 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,521,000 after acquiring an additional 17,700 shares during the last quarter. Prescott Group Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in shares of Limoneira in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $477,000. Finally, Riverwater Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Limoneira by 294.3% in the 4th quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 69,258 shares of the company’s stock worth $846,000 after acquiring an additional 51,693 shares during the last quarter. 41.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on LMNR shares. Roth Capital cut their target price on shares of Limoneira from $20.00 to $17.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 29th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Limoneira in a research note on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of Limoneira from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Friday, March 10th.

About Limoneira

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Limoneira Co is an agribusiness and real estate development company, which engages in the innovation of the agricultural citrus industry in California. It operates through the following segments: Fresh Lemons, Lemon Packing, Avocados, and Other Agribusiness. The Fresh Lemons segments focuses on the sale of fresh lemons, lemon by-products, brokered fruit and other lemon revenue.