Brunswick Co. (NYSE:BC) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Brunswick Co. (NYSE:BC) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eight have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $88.21.

BC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Brunswick from $95.00 to $93.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Brunswick from $78.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Brunswick from $97.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 price objective on shares of Brunswick in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Northcoast Research raised shares of Brunswick from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, July 29th.

Insider Activity at Brunswick

In related news, Director Nancy E. Cooper sold 358 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.34, for a total transaction of $29,119.72. Following the transaction, the director now owns 23,877 shares in the company, valued at $1,942,155.18. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Brunswick by 2.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,266,170 shares of the company’s stock worth $701,331,000 after buying an additional 160,531 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in Brunswick by 2.3% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,637,962 shares of the company’s stock worth $191,964,000 after buying an additional 58,583 shares in the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. boosted its holdings in Brunswick by 88.0% during the second quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 2,430,983 shares of the company’s stock worth $176,903,000 after buying an additional 1,137,568 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Brunswick by 7.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,096,808 shares of the company’s stock worth $152,577,000 after buying an additional 144,416 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Brunswick by 4.1% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,461,268 shares of the company’s stock worth $106,337,000 after buying an additional 57,605 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.34% of the company’s stock.

Brunswick Stock Performance

Shares of Brunswick stock opened at $75.98 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $5.13 billion, a PE ratio of 14.12 and a beta of 1.52. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $76.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $81.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 1.70. Brunswick has a 1 year low of $66.47 and a 1 year high of $99.68.

Brunswick (NYSE:BC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.55 billion. Brunswick had a net margin of 5.92% and a return on equity of 23.46%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.35 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Brunswick will post 5.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Brunswick Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.42 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.21%. Brunswick’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.23%.

About Brunswick

Brunswick Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets recreation products in the United States, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Propulsion, Engine P&A, Navico Group, and Boat. The Propulsion segment provides outboard, sterndrive, inboard engines, propulsion-related controls, rigging, and propellers for boat builders through marine retail dealers under the Mercury, Mercury MerCruiser, Mariner, Mercury Racing, Mercury Diesel, Avator, and Fliteboard brands.