Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI – Get Rating) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest in the month of December. As of December 30th, there was short interest totalling 14,280,000 shares, a drop of 14.9% from the December 15th total of 16,780,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 3,960,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.6 days. Currently, 6.4% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Institutional Trading of Bath & Body Works

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ellevest Inc. grew its position in shares of Bath & Body Works by 156.0% in the second quarter. Ellevest Inc. now owns 1,047 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 638 shares in the last quarter. Boyd Watterson Asset Management LLC OH purchased a new position in shares of Bath & Body Works in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Bath & Body Works by 81.5% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,062 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 477 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Bath & Body Works by 151.4% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,149 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 692 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CoreCap Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Bath & Body Works in the second quarter valued at $39,000. 96.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on BBWI. Argus raised their price objective on Bath & Body Works from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 7th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Bath & Body Works from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $55.00 to $46.00 in a report on Friday, January 6th. Citigroup raised their target price on Bath & Body Works from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 18th. Bank of America raised their target price on Bath & Body Works from $48.00 to $50.00 in a report on Thursday, November 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Bath & Body Works from $40.00 to $43.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $51.52.

Bath & Body Works Price Performance

Shares of BBWI opened at $45.01 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $10.28 billion, a PE ratio of 11.72, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.67. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $42.12 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.38. Bath & Body Works has a 1 year low of $25.75 and a 1 year high of $62.26.

Bath & Body Works (NYSE:BBWI – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 16th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.19 by $0.21. The firm had revenue of $1.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.56 billion. Bath & Body Works had a negative return on equity of 40.90% and a net margin of 12.48%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Bath & Body Works will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bath & Body Works Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 18th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 17th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.78%. Bath & Body Works’s payout ratio is presently 20.83%.

Bath & Body Works Company Profile

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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.