Bath & Body Works Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:BBWI)

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

Bath & Body Works Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of NYSE BBWI opened at $26.06 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $27.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.52. Bath & Body Works has a 52 week low of $24.85 and a 52 week high of $41.87.

Bath & Body Works (NYSE:BBWI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 28th. The company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37. The business had revenue of $1.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.55 billion. Bath & Body Works had a net margin of 9.88% and a negative return on equity of 48.43%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.37 earnings per share. Bath & Body Works has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 0.370-0.45 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 3.350-3.600 EPS. As a group, equities 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 22nd were given a $0.20 dividend. 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 23.74%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bath & Body Works

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Bath & Body Works by 7.6% during the first 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 during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Bath & Body Works by 11.5% during the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,080,106 shares of the company’s stock worth $212,120,000 after purchasing an additional 733,000 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Bath & Body Works by 14,732.0% during the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,798,108 shares of the company’s stock worth $206,119,000 after purchasing an additional 6,752,274 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in Bath & Body Works by 5.8% during the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,737,796 shares of the company’s stock worth $171,904,000 after purchasing an additional 315,738 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cooper Creek Partners Management LLC increased its position in Bath & Body Works by 42.7% during the second quarter. Cooper Creek Partners Management LLC now owns 5,409,919 shares of the company’s stock worth $162,081,000 after purchasing an additional 1,619,276 shares during the last quarter. 95.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BBWI has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group decreased 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 report on Monday, October 13th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Bath & Body Works from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Bath & Body Works from $19.00 to $18.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 12th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Bath & Body Works from $44.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $38.00 price objective on shares of Bath & Body Works in a report on Thursday, August 28th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $36.39.

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.