Investors Purchase Large Volume of Bath & Body Works Put Options (NYSE:BBWI)

Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock traders acquired 17,302 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 198% compared to the average daily volume of 5,811 put options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bath & Body Works

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Lone Pine Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Bath & Body Works by 15.8% in the second quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 11,315,515 shares of the company’s stock valued at $441,871,000 after acquiring an additional 1,547,399 shares during the last quarter. Anomaly Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Bath & Body Works in the 2nd quarter valued at $113,995,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bath & Body Works by 17,496.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,516,127 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,315,000 after purchasing an additional 2,501,828 shares during the last quarter. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT increased its position in shares of Bath & Body Works by 10.0% during the second quarter. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT now owns 2,088,703 shares of the company’s stock worth $81,564,000 after buying an additional 189,889 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its stake in 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 worth $54,322,000 after buying an additional 1,683,160 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.14% of the company’s stock.

Bath & Body Works Stock Performance

Shares of Bath & Body Works stock traded down $0.39 on Thursday, hitting $36.54. The stock had a trading volume of 861,204 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,166,032. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $36.07 and a 200 day moving average of $33.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.91, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.82. Bath & Body Works has a twelve month low of $26.20 and a twelve month high of $52.99.

Bath & Body Works (NYSE:BBWI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 25th. The company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. Bath & Body Works had a net margin of 12.43% and a negative return on equity of 44.03%. The company’s revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.48 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Bath & Body Works will post 3.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Bath & Body Works Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. Bath & Body Works’s payout ratio is presently 19.51%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BBWI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays raised their price target on Bath & Body Works from $28.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Bath & Body Works from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Bath & Body Works from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Bath & Body Works from $51.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Bath & Body Works from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Friday, January 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Bath & Body Works presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.06.

Bath & Body Works Company Profile

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.