Casey's General Stores Inc.

Companies highlighted in this weekly wrap include Casey's General Stores Inc. (CASY - Snapshot Report), Altera Corp. (ALTR - Analyst Report), Cubic Corporation (CUB - Snapshot Report) and Target Corporation (TGT - Analyst Report).

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Casey's General Stores Inc. (CASY - Snapshot Report) continues to perform well after recently spiking on a strong third quarter. Analysts remain bullish on earnings, raising the fiscal full-year estimate by a penny since we last featured CASY as a Growth and Income pick in mid-May. The company is scheduled to report fourth-quarter and full-year results in mid-June.

Bullish Forecasts

Analysts’ earnings estimates for the year ended April 2009 are at $1.75 per share, above last month’s $1.74 and the 3 months-ago level of $1.55. The most accurate projection is higher at $1.76.

For the following year, analysts are calling for earnings of $1.80 per share, an increase from the 2 months-ago level of $1.74 and the 3 month-ago level of $1.60. The most accurate forecast is more bullish at $1.82.

Casey's General Stores will announce fourth-quarter and full-year results in mid-June.

Favorable Comparisons

CASY’s return on equity (ROE) of 13% is above the industry average of 11%. The company’s dividend yield of 1.2% stands out as most of CASY’s industry peers pay no income. Its net profit margin of 2% is higher than the industry’s average of 0.7%.

Read our May 14, 2009 commentary on CASY.

Last Week's Growth and Income Zacks Rank Buy Stocks

Altera Corp. (ALTR - Analyst Report) just saw a nice share price spike thanks to an analyst, who raised earnings estimates based on the prospect that Altera will hike its second-quarter outlook on strong demand from China. Read the full analysis in ALTR.

Cubic Corporation (CUB - Snapshot Report) saw fiscal second-quarter earnings of 53 cents per share, topping the year-prior 36 cents and exceeding analysts’ estimates of 43 cents. Second-quarter sales of $242.8 million came in above last year’s $210.3 million. Read the full analysis on CUB.

Target Corporation (TGT - Analyst Report) recently announced first-quarter earnings of 69 cents per share, surpassing the consensus estimate by 15%. Sales of $14.4 billion came in above last year’s $14.3 billion. Read the full analysis on TGT.

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