Lifetime Brands (NASDAQ:LCUT) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at Zacks Research

Lifetime Brands (NASDAQ:LCUT) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research firms have also commented on LCUT. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Lifetime Brands in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on shares of Lifetime Brands from $5.00 to $6.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and issued a $8.00 price target on shares of Lifetime Brands in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Lifetime Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Sunday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $7.00.

Lifetime Brands Price Performance

Shares of Lifetime Brands stock opened at $7.61 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 2.93. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $6.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $4.49. Lifetime Brands has a twelve month low of $2.90 and a twelve month high of $8.25. The firm has a market cap of $173.89 million, a P/E ratio of -5.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 0.92.

Lifetime Brands (NASDAQ:LCUT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.04 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.18) by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $143.51 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $137.58 million. Lifetime Brands had a negative net margin of 4.22% and a positive return on equity of 8.01%. As a group, research analysts expect that Lifetime Brands will post 0.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lifetime Brands

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of Lifetime Brands by 39.0% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 20,722 shares of the company’s stock worth $119,000 after acquiring an additional 5,809 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in shares of Lifetime Brands by 14.3% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 116,765 shares of the company’s stock worth $670,000 after buying an additional 14,614 shares during the last quarter. JB Capital Partners LP raised its stake in shares of Lifetime Brands by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. JB Capital Partners LP now owns 1,627,852 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,430,000 after buying an additional 40,000 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Lifetime Brands by 388.4% during the fourth quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 51,795 shares of the company’s stock worth $205,000 after buying an additional 41,191 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Lifetime Brands by 0.5% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 913,425 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,535,000 after buying an additional 4,703 shares during the last quarter. 40.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Lifetime Brands Company Profile

Lifetime Brands, Inc, through its subsidiaries, designs, sources, manufactures and distributes a broad portfolio of consumer products for the home. Headquartered in Garden City, New York, the company operates three primary business segments—Kitchenware, Tabletop & Home Décor and Tools & Storage—providing solutions for food preparation, cooking, serving and storage under both proprietary and licensed brand names.

In the Kitchenware segment, Lifetime Brands offers cookware, bakeware, cutlery and small electric appliances under brands such as Farberware and Chef’sChoice.