Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Acquires 68,515 Shares of Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of Bath & Body Works, Inc. (NYSE:BBWI - Free Report) by 48.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 211,120 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 68,515 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned approximately 0.10% of Bath & Body Works worth $6,401,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Bath & Body Works by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,199,787 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,093,306,000 after buying an additional 208,036 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Bath & Body Works by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,235,086 shares of the company's stock valued at $396,815,000 after purchasing an additional 422,973 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Bath & Body Works by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,494,089 shares of the company's stock valued at $329,317,000 after purchasing an additional 445,887 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in shares of Bath & Body Works by 35.6% in the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,178,447 shares of the company's stock worth $200,768,000 after buying an additional 1,360,264 shares during the period. Finally, Anomaly Capital Management LP grew its position in shares of Bath & Body Works by 38.3% in the 4th quarter. Anomaly Capital Management LP now owns 4,860,876 shares of the company's stock worth $188,456,000 after buying an additional 1,346,752 shares during the period. 95.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on BBWI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Bath & Body Works from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. Telsey Advisory Group restated an "outperform" rating and set a $38.00 price target (down previously from $43.00) on shares of Bath & Body Works in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Piper Sandler set a $39.00 target price on Bath & Body Works and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Bath & Body Works from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Bath & Body Works from $49.00 to $43.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $42.00.

Bath & Body Works Stock Performance

NYSE:BBWI opened at $31.79 on Friday. Bath & Body Works, Inc. has a one year low of $24.94 and a one year high of $41.87. The stock has a market cap of $6.73 billion, a PE ratio of 8.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.72. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $30.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.25.

Bath & Body Works (NYSE:BBWI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 29th. The company reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.42 billion. Bath & Body Works had a negative return on equity of 47.44% and a net margin of 11.10%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.38 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Bath & Body Works, Inc. will post 3.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bath & Body Works Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 6th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 6th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.52%. Bath & Body Works's dividend payout ratio is currently 21.33%.

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.

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