Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Acquires Shares of 9,604 Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC bought a new stake in Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 9,604 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $372,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its position in Bath & Body Works by 17,496.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,516,127 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,315,000 after buying an additional 2,501,828 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its position in shares of Bath & Body Works by 9,023.5% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,701,813 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,322,000 after buying an additional 1,683,160 shares during the last quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH purchased a new position in shares of Bath & Body Works in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $50,483,000. Forest Avenue Capital Management LP grew its position in Bath & Body Works by 19.1% during the third quarter. Forest Avenue Capital Management LP now owns 1,467,763 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,851,000 after buying an additional 235,173 shares during the period. Finally, Verition Fund Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Bath & Body Works by 111.8% in the 3rd quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 1,345,777 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,957,000 after purchasing an additional 710,333 shares during the period. 95.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on BBWI shares. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Bath & Body Works from $51.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 21st. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Bath & Body Works from $42.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Telsey Advisory Group reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $42.00 target price on shares of Bath & Body Works in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Bath & Body Works from $28.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Bath & Body Works from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $48.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bath & Body Works presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.19.

Bath & Body Works Stock Performance

NYSE BBWI opened at $35.48 on Tuesday. Bath & Body Works, Inc. has a one year low of $26.20 and a one year high of $52.99. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $37.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $33.65. The company has a market capitalization of $7.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.65, a P/E/G ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.83.

Bath & Body Works (NYSE:BBWI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 25th. The company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.03. Bath & Body Works had a negative return on equity of 44.03% and a net margin of 12.43%. The company had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.48 earnings per share. Bath & Body Works’s revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Bath & Body Works, Inc. will post 3.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bath & Body Works Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.25%. Bath & Body Works’s payout ratio is 19.51%.

Bath & Body Works Profile

Bath & Body Works, Inc is a specialty retailers and home to America’s Favorite Fragrances, offering a breadth of exclusive fragrances for the body and home, including the selling collections for fine fragrance mist, body lotion and body cream, 3-wick candles, home fragrance diffusers and liquid hand soap.