Casey's Makes Repeat Appearance on Most Trusted List

ANKENY, Iowa -- Casey's General Stores Inc. has once again been named one of America's Most Trustworthy Companies, earning the highest score among the 100 companies on the list.

The annual list is published by Forbes with information provided by GMI Ratings. To develop the rankings, GMI reviews the accounting and governance behaviors of more than 8,000 publicly traded companies in North America.

The companies that made the list garnered the 100 highest scores for trustworthy behavior over the four quarters of the previous fiscal year, according to the magazine. And this year, the company with the strongest Aggressive Accounting and Governance Risk (AGR) is Casey's, which earned an AGR of 99 out of a possible 100.

"The focus has always been on people who cheat, lie and steal, so we thought it could be good to focus some light on those companies that are transparent and consistent," said James Kaplan, director of proprietary ratings provider and investment adviser GMI Ratings.

Kaplan added that companies that make this list are reporting accurately on their outcomes, good or bad. While there's no guarantee that an honest company is a thriving one, in most cases the companies here are financially sound, with strong stock performance.

"There's far less uncertainty associated with [these companies]. For better or for worse based on performance, they're informing their shareholders," he said. "There's a lot of things that factor into your decision making as a shareholder, but one is what is the company doing."

GMI breaks out the rankings to three categories: large-cap companies with market caps of $5 billion or higher, mid-cap companies with market caps of $1 to $5 billion, and small-cap companies with market caps of $25 million to $1 billion.

Only four companies have appeared on the list three times in the previous seven years, including Casey's (2009, 2010, 2013), which falls into the mid-cap category with its market cap of $2.635 billion, the report added.

Ankeny-based Casey's owns and operates more than 1,750 convenience stores in 14 Midwestern states.

Other convenience channel-related companies appearing on the list are Tyson Foods Inc., Boston Beer Co. Inc. and J&J Snack Foods Corp.

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