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

Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Stock investors bought 30,472 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 188% compared to the average volume of 10,567 put options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BBWI has been the topic of several analyst reports. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Bath & Body Works from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Bath & Body Works from $32.00 to $28.50 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Bath & Body Works in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Bath & Body Works from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group restated an “outperform” rating and set a $38.00 price objective on shares of Bath & Body Works in a research note on Thursday, August 28th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Bath & Body Works has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $36.39.

Bath & Body Works Stock Down 3.5%

Shares of NYSE:BBWI opened at $26.05 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $27.43 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $29.06. Bath & Body Works has a 12-month low of $24.85 and a 12-month high of $41.87. The firm has a market cap of $5.37 billion, a PE ratio of 7.73, a PEG ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.52.

Bath & Body Works (NYSE:BBWI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 28th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37. Bath & Body Works had a net margin of 9.88% and a negative return on equity of 48.43%. The firm had revenue of $1.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.55 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.37 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Bath & Body Works has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 0.370-0.45 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 3.350-3.600 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Bath & Body Works will post 3.3 EPS for the current year.

Bath & Body Works Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 22nd were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 22nd. Bath & Body Works’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.74%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Bath & Body Works by 7.6% during the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,016,767 shares of the company’s stock worth $334,029,000 after purchasing an additional 781,681 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Bath & Body Works by 11.5% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,080,106 shares of the company’s stock worth $212,120,000 after acquiring an additional 733,000 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Bath & Body Works by 14,732.0% during the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,798,108 shares of the company’s stock worth $206,119,000 after acquiring an additional 6,752,274 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Bath & Body Works by 5.8% during the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,737,796 shares of the company’s stock worth $171,904,000 after acquiring an additional 315,738 shares during the period. Finally, Cooper Creek Partners Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Bath & Body Works by 42.7% during the 2nd quarter. Cooper Creek Partners Management LLC now owns 5,409,919 shares of the company’s stock worth $162,081,000 after acquiring an additional 1,619,276 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.14% of the company’s stock.

About Bath & Body Works

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.