Bath & Body Works (NYSE:BBWI) Shares Gap Down After Analyst Downgrade

Posted by Defense World Staff on Oct 25th, 2023

Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI – Get Free Report)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Tuesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded the stock from a neutral rating to an underweight rating. The stock had previously closed at $29.56, but opened at $28.90. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now has a $27.00 price target on the stock, down from their previous price target of $41.00. Bath & Body Works shares last traded at $28.97, with a volume of 719,794 shares changing hands.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on BBWI. Barclays raised shares of Bath & Body Works from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $41.00 to $45.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 1st. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Bath & Body Works from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 24th. Telsey Advisory Group reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $52.00 target price on shares of Bath & Body Works in a research report on Wednesday, August 23rd. Raymond James decreased their target price on shares of Bath & Body Works from $48.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Bath & Body Works from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Bath & Body Works presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.50.

Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on Bath & Body Works

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of BBWI. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Bath & Body Works by 12.8% during the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 19,672 shares of the company’s stock valued at $940,000 after purchasing an additional 2,228 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its stake in shares of Bath & Body Works by 3.9% in the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 34,484 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,648,000 after acquiring an additional 1,301 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Bath & Body Works by 253.4% in the first quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 44,967 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,244,000 after acquiring an additional 32,242 shares during the period. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. increased its stake in shares of Bath & Body Works by 127.4% in the first quarter. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. now owns 27,922 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,335,000 after acquiring an additional 15,642 shares during the period. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Bath & Body Works by 54.3% in the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 113,805 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,440,000 after acquiring an additional 40,046 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.31% of the company’s stock.

Bath & Body Works Stock Down 2.4 %

The stock has a market cap of $6.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.74. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $34.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $35.89.

Bath & Body Works (NYSE:BBWI – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 23rd. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.56 billion. Bath & Body Works had a net margin of 9.47% and a negative return on equity of 30.08%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.52 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Bath & Body Works, Inc. will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bath & Body Works Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 18th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 17th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.77%. Bath & Body Works’s payout ratio is currently 26.06%.

About Bath & Body Works

(Get Free Report)

Bath & Body Works, Inc operates a specialty retailer of home fragrance, body care, and soaps and sanitizer products. It sells its products under the Bath & Body Works, White Barn, and other brand names through retail stores and e-commerce sites located in the United States and Canada, as well as through international stores operated by partners under franchise, license, and wholesale arrangements.